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Custard Fritters

Deep-fried custard pieces coated in batter and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Custard Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat together the milk, cream, sugar, and eggs in a bowl.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Pour the strained mixture into a small bowl.

  4. Place the bowl in a saucepan with boiling water. Ensure the water reaches halfway up the sides of the bowl.

  5. Steam gently for about 20 minutes, until set.

  6. Cool the bowl on ice until cold.

Fry and serve

  1. Cut the custard into pieces about 1.5 inches long and 1 inch square.

  2. Dip each piece into the common batter.

  3. Fry in plenty of hot lard until deep fawn in color.

  4. Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure when steamed.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into a custard.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a softer, smoother texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set custard's texture.
Common batter
Forms a coating that browns and crisps when fried.

The step that matters

Steam gently until set. Steam gently rather than boiling hard. High heat makes egg custard go grainy, spongy, or watery, while gentle heat sets it smoothly. Cooling fully on ice before cutting keeps the pieces firm enough to hold their shape in the batter and hot fat.

“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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