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Dessert

Lemon Fkittehs

A fried dough treat flavored with lemon peel, nutmeg, cinnamon, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lemon Fkittehs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with powdered sugar until smooth.

  2. Add grated lemon peel, nutmeg and cinnamon mixture, salt, and cream; mix well.

  3. Fold in the egg whites gently.

  4. Gradually add flour, mixing until a soft paste forms.

  5. Roll out the dough to about ¾ inch thick.

  6. Cut into small circular shapes using a tumbler or cake cutter.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot lard until puffed and golden.

  2. Drain on clean paper and serve warm.

  3. For the sauce, mix lemon juice, grated lemon peel, powdered sugar, wine, and beaten egg whites until combined.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites add lightness and help the fritters puff.
All-purpose flour
Forms the starch and gluten structure that holds the soft paste together when fried.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dough a tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it become smooth, and it sweetens the sauce.
Lard
Frying fat that transfers heat quickly, browning the outside and crisping the surface.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the fritters absorb grease and turn heavy instead of puffing and browning quickly. Hot fat sets the outside fast, trapping steam inside so the centre puffs.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, flour, sauce. 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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