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Dessert

Sponge-cake Fritters

A fritter made by crumbling stale sponge cakes, soaking in milk, baking soda, eggs, currants, and frying in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sponge-cake Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Roll the sponge cakes into fine crumbs.

  2. Stir the baking soda into the boiling milk.

  3. Pour the milk mixture over the crumbs.

  4. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

  5. Beat the mixture until cold.

  6. Whip the eggs.

  7. Add the yolks first, then the whites.

  8. Dredge the currants in flour.

  9. Fold the currants into the mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into boiling lard.

  2. Test one fritter for consistency.

  3. Drain quickly in a hot colander.

  4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with nutmeg.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Sponge cakes
Provide the bulk of the batter, soaking up the hot milk to form a soft base.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and lightness when whipped and folded in.
Milk
Softens the crumbs and adds moisture to the batter.
Currants
Add fruity sweetness and chewy texture throughout each fritter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the milk to help the batter rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Adding the currants. Dredging the currants in flour helps them stay suspended rather than sinking to the bottom of the batter. Folding gently keeps the air from the whipped eggs so the fritters stay light.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, sugar, nutmeg. 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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