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Dessert

Lemon Fritters

A fried dough fritter flavored with lemon, spices, and cream, served warm with lemon juice, wine, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Lemon Fritters

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lemon Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with powdered sugar.

  2. Add grated lemon peel, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

  3. Stir in cream, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Gradually mix in flour to form a soft paste.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the dough to about ¾ inch thick.

  2. Cut into small circular shapes.

  3. Fry in hot lard until puffed and golden.

Serve

  1. Drain on clean paper and serve warm with lemon juice, wine, and beaten egg whites.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, while yolks add richness and help bind the dough.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the soft paste together and gives the fritters body.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the yolks for a smooth base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the paste soft and tender.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the outside and gives a crisp, golden surface.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard. Hot fat sets the outside quickly so the fritters puff and turn golden instead of soaking up oil. If the lard is not hot enough, the dough absorbs grease and becomes heavy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, flour, wine):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, flour, wine. 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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