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Spanish Fritters

A yeast-based dough fritter fried until crisp, served with sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Spanish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Moisten the yeast with a little lukewarm water.

  2. Add the eggs and stir into the flour.

  3. Sprinkle in the salt, mix, and beat well.

  4. Gradually add milk until a very light dough forms.

  5. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise for 2-3 hours.

  6. When ready, work in the butter.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the dough into small balls.

  2. Fry in hot fat until crisp and lightly browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with sweet sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the fritters together.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough bind and brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and enriches its flavor.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour into a light dough.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until crisp and lightly browned. If the fat is not hot enough, the fritters absorb excess oil and turn greasy instead of crisp. Hot fat sets the outside quickly while the inside cooks through.

“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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