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Plain Fritters

A batter of eggs, milk, flour, and lard fried into fritters, served hot with cinnamon, sugar, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plain Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs very light.

  2. Gradually stir the eggs into the milk.

  3. Add the flour in increments and beat the mixture hard.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard in a frying pan until it reaches a hard boil.

  2. Pour in about ½ cup of batter for each fritter.

  3. Fry until done, about a few minutes, without turning.

  4. Serve hot with powdered cinnamon, sugar, and white wine.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape in the hot lard.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter into a pourable consistency.
Lard
Fries the fritters, giving a crisp, browned outside and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Frying without turning. Batter set on one side needs time to firm and brown before it can be flipped; turning too early can tear or collapse the fritter. Lard must be very hot so the batter sets quickly rather than absorbing grease.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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