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Rusk Fritters

A sweet fried snack made from stale rusks soaked in sherry and coated in egg and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Rusk Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the crusts off the rusks and divide each into two or three equal pieces, about 1 inch thick.

  2. Pour the sherry over the rusks and let them soak for 5 minutes, then drain on a sieve.

  3. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the soaked rusks into the egg mixture for 1 minute, turning to coat well.

  2. Fry the rusks in boiling lard until golden brown.

  3. Drain well and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon.

  4. Serve hot, with or without 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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sherry + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + cinnamontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,058 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

Stale rusks
Dry, absorbent base that soaks up sherry and egg, giving the fritter its body.
Eggs
Coat the soaked rusks and set in the hot fat, binding the crust around a moist interior.
White sugar
Sweetens the egg coating and helps it brown in the hot lard.
Sherry
Moistens the stale rusks so they soften and take on flavor before frying.

The step that matters

Frying the soaked rusks in boiling lard until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to set the egg coating quickly. If it is too cool, the rusks absorb excess fat and turn greasy, and the egg may not set before the inside becomes soggy.

“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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