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Potato Fritters

Fried batter of boiled potatoes, eggs, cream, sweet wine, lemon, nutmeg, served with sauce of white wine, lemon, peach or almond water, and melted 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 scrape them finely.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites together in a bowl.

  3. Add the cream, sweet wine, lemon juice, and nutmeg to the eggs. Mix the mixture well.

  4. Combine the potato with the egg mixture.

  5. Beat the batter for 30 minutes.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown.

  4. Serve with a sauce made of white wine, lemon juice, peach or almond water, and melted 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the fritters a soft, tender interior.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together.
Egg whites
Whipped into the batter to add lightness and help the fritters puff.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the batter richer and softer.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough when the batter drops in, or the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy. Frying at a steady heat sets the outside quickly while the inside cooks through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, wine, lemon, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, wine, lemon, nutmeg, butter. 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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