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Dessert

Cream Fritters

A sweet fried pastry made from a milk, cornstarch, butter, sugar, almond, and egg batter, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold water.

  3. Thicken the milk with the dissolved cornstarch.

  4. Add the butter, sugar, salt, almonds, and orange water.

  5. Boil for five minutes, then remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the beaten eggs.

  7. Spread the mixture about an inch thick on an oiled platter.

  8. Allow the mixture to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool, cut into strips one inch wide and three inches long.

  2. Roll the strips in fine crumbs.

  3. Dip the rolled strips in beaten egg.

  4. Roll the strips again in fine crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in boiling lard until golden brown.

  2. Drain the fritters on brown paper.

  3. Dust with powdered sugar.

  4. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch and eggs thicken into a custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the mixture firms enough to be cut into strips.
Eggs
Set into the custard, binding it so the strips hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the fried coating brown.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and a slight texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool fully before cutting. As the starch-thickened custard cools, it firms and sets. Cutting it while still warm and soft can make the strips slump, tear, or fall apart during coating and frying.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, almond, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, almond, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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