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Dessert

Cream Fritters

A batter of egg whites, cream, flour, salt, nutmeg fried in sweet lard, served with jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Whip the egg whites to a foam.

  2. Stir in the heavy cream.

  3. Gradually add the flour, salt, and nutmeg, mixing well.

  4. Beat the mixture hard for five minutes.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot sweet lard.

  2. Fry until golden brown, then drain.

  3. Serve on warm plates with jelly sauce.

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg whites
Whipped to a foam, they trap air that lightens the fritters.
All-purpose flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape while frying.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the fritters a tender interior.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot sweet lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping quickly. Frying at a steady temperature gives a golden crust and a light interior.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Jalapenofits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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