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 ↓
German Fritters, or Brioche Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fritters
Roll out the brioche paste to ¼ inch thickness.
Stamp it into small rounds using a wine glass.
Place a small piece of jam on half of the rounds.
Moisten the edges and cover each with a similar round.
Press the edges securely together and trim with the wine glass.
Fry and serve
Carefully place the fritters into hot fat and fry until lightly browned.
Drain from fat and serve hot, sprinkled with sifted sugar and powdered cinnamon.
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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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Brioche + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together123 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Brioche + cinnamontop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together33 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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
- Brioche paste
- Enriched dough that puffs and turns golden and tender when fried.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness and moisture inside the sealed fritter.
The step that matters
Pressing the edges securely together. If the edges are not well sealed, the jam can leak into the hot fat while frying, causing splatter and leaving the fritter hollow or greasy. Moistening the edges helps the dough bond.
“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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