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Dessert

Spanish Fritters

A batter of water, cinnamon, cloves, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, and brandy is fried in lard and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Spanish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, cinnamon, and cloves; bring to a boil for a few minutes.

  2. Remove the spices and add butter; let it melt.

  3. Stir in flour and sugar, cooking for a few minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  5. Continue beating until the batter is smooth, then mix in brandy.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a saucepan; drop batter by teaspoonfuls into the hot lard.

  2. Fry until golden brown, then remove and place on a sieve.

  3. Dust with sugar and serve on a napkin.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set, holding the fritters together.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the fritters their body once cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, giving a richer taste and tender crumb.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Heat the lard before frying. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping quickly. Hot fat sets the outside fast so the fritters stay light and golden.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, butter, flour, sugar, egg, brandy. 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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