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Dessert

French Fritters

A sweet fried dough made with water, sugar, butter, salt, flour, eggs, fried and rolled in sugar and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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French Fritters

Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine water, sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Heat until the butter melts.

  3. Stir in the flour quickly until well combined.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Mix in the eggs one at a time.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot butter or lard.

  2. Fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove from oil.

  4. Roll the fritters in sugar and cinnamon before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fritters together as they cook.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the batter puff and set as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the dough and helps give the fried exterior its richness.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour quickly until well combined. Adding flour to the hot liquid all at once and stirring fast gelatinizes the starch evenly and prevents lumps. Beating in eggs only after the mixture has cooled a little keeps them from scrambling and keeps the dough thick enough to hold its shape.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, 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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