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Roman Fritters

A fried batter of eggs, bread crumbs, milk, sugar, candied peel, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roman Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk and squeeze out excess liquid.

  2. Beat the yolks of eggs and mix with the soaked bread crumbs.

  3. Add sugar, chopped candied peel, and sultana raisins.

  4. Mix well and add flour to form a smooth, firm paste.

Fry and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into small balls, coat with flour, and fry in hot oil or butter until golden brown.

  2. Sprinkle with sugar and serve hot.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and tender structure to the fritters.
Bread crumbs
Provide body and absorb milk so the paste holds its shape.
Flour
Stiffens the paste and forms a light crust that browns when fried.
Candied peel
Adds concentrated citrus aroma and a chewy, sweet bite.
Sultana raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the fritters.

The step that matters

Forming a smooth, firm paste. If the paste is too wet it will spread and break apart in hot oil. Squeezing out excess milk from the soaked crumbs and adding flour until the mixture holds its shape helps the balls keep their form and fry evenly.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, milk, sugar, flour, 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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