Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Queen Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the choux paste
In a saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil.
Once boiling, add the flour and stir rapidly until it forms a ball.
Remove from heat, beat thoroughly, and let cool.
When cool, add one egg without beating and mix until combined.
Add another egg, beat again, and repeat until all four eggs are added.
Beat the mixture for about a minute.
Fry and serve
Heat the lard in a kettle.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard, leaving space for them to expand.
Cook until they stop popping and are golden brown.
Serve hot, dusted with sugar and 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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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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
- Flour
- Starch that sets with heat and gives the fritters their structure.
- Eggs
- Add moisture and protein that set the batter and help it puff when fried.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the dough and helps give a tender crumb.
- Water
- Turns the butter into liquid and gives steam that lifts the dough as it cooks.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs to the cooled paste. Eggs must be beaten in one at a time and fully combined before the next is added. This keeps the paste smooth and able to hold air, so the fritters puff rather than turn heavy or split.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, sugar):
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, 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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