Why it works: Butter and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Frangipane Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Mix butter, eggs, sugar, potato, and ratafias to make frangipane cream.
Bake or steam until set.
Optionally add a little rum for flavor.
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.
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds fat that gives richness and a tender, smooth texture.
- Eggs
- Set on heating to give the cream structure and firmness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the cream moist and tender.
- Floury potato
- Its starch absorbs liquid and gives a light, soft body to the cream.
- Powdered ratafias
- Ground almond-flavored biscuits that add aroma and a nutty sweetness.
The step that matters
Bake or steam until set. Underdone cream stays runny and will not hold its shape. Overcooking tightens the egg proteins too far, leaving it rubbery and dry.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar. 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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