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Dessert

Lemon Fritters

A fried batter made with flour, eggs, sugar, lemon juice and peel, cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Fritters

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs, then add the flour and milk.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon peel.

  3. Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat plenty of lard in a deep pan until it begins to smoke.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard without crowding the pan.

  3. Fry until the fritters begin to brown quickly, turning them with a wire spoon.

  4. If they start to darken too much, reduce the heat immediately.

  5. Remove the fritters from the fat and drain on a napkin or paper.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk 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

Eggs
Whipped whites give the batter lightness, while the yolks add richness and binding.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fritters together as they fry.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the hot fat.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour forms a smooth, pourable batter.
Lemon peel
Contributes aroma and citrus flavour from the oils in the zest.

The step that matters

Reduce the heat when the fritters darken. Sugar browns quickly in hot fat, so the outside can scorch before the centre cooks through. Lowering the heat lets the inside set while the surface stays golden.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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