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Dessert

Frangipane Fritters

Frangipane fritters are fried slices of a sweet batter made with eggs, potato, butter, sugar, ratafia, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Frangipane Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frangipane

  1. Mix eggs, potato, butter, sugar, and ratafia to make frangipane cream; flavor with rum.

  2. Bake or steam until set, then let cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Cut into slices about ½ inch thick and 1½ inches long.

  2. Sprinkle each slice with cinnamon and dust with powdered sugar.

  3. Dip each piece in batter and fry in boiling oil until golden brown.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust with finely powdered sugar, pile on a dish, and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rum + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Set when baked or steamed, giving the frangipane its firm yet tender structure.
Cold floury potato
Adds body and starch to the cream, helping it hold its shape when sliced.
Butter
Contributes fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture in the cream.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fritter surface brown during frying.
Powdered ratafia
Gives the cream its characteristic almond-like aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling oil until golden brown. Oil that is too cool lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the batter cooks through. Steady heat gives a crisp, evenly colored coating.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, rum, cinnamon. 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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