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Dessert

Matzo Fritters

A fried cake made from soaked matzo, eggs, sugar, lemon, raisins, almonds, citron, spices, and matzo meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Matzo Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the matzos in water until soft, then drain and press dry.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and rind, raisins, almonds, citron, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Mix well.

Shape and fry

  1. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and enough matzo meal to hold the mixture together, using as little as possible.

  2. Form the mixture into cakes and fry slowly in hot butter or fat until brown on both sides.

Serve

  1. Serve with lemon or wine 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Matzos
Soften and form the bulk of the fritter base once soaked and pressed dry.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture; whites, beaten stiff, lighten it and help the cakes rise.
Matzo meal
Absorbs moisture and binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown when fried.
Almonds
Add richness and a crunchy texture against the soft interior.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites and matzo meal gently. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that lightens the cakes, and deflating them by overmixing makes the fritters dense. Using only as much matzo meal as needed keeps them tender while still holding together in the pan.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, raisin, almond, cinnamon, clove, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, raisin, almond, cinnamon, clove, butter. 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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