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Potato Fritters

A fried batter of mashed potatoes, eggs, cream, wine, lemon, nutmeg, served with sherry sauce and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Potato Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then lightly mash them with a fork.

  2. In a bowl, beat the 3 eggs well, then add the cream, wine, lemon juice, nutmeg, and mashed potatoes.

  3. Beat the mixture for at least 20 minutes until the batter is very light.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat plenty of lard in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Drop tablespoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard and fry until golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes.

  3. For the sauce, warm sherry, lemon juice, and sugar together until combined.

  4. Serve the fritters on a plate, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and the sauce on the side.

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

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

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk of the batter, giving the fritters a soft, tender interior.
Eggs
Add structure and lightness, setting the fritters as they fry.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the inside of the fritters tender.
Raisin or sweet wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the batter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the batter and balances sweetness.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for at least 20 minutes. Long beating incorporates air into the egg and potato mixture, which helps the fritters puff and stay light. Under-beaten batter yields dense fritters.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, cream, lemon, nutmeg, sherry, sauce):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, cream, lemon, nutmeg, sherry, 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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