Skip to main content
Dessert

Fritters

A sweet batter fritter made with eggs, milk, flour, almonds, sugar, orange flower water, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Fritters

Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat and strain the 2 eggs, then mix with milk and flour to make a thick batter.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds to a paste and combine with the batter.

  3. Add the yolks of 4 eggs, whites of 2 eggs, orange‑flower water or cinnamon water, sugar, and nutmeg.

  4. Pound the mixture until smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat fine lard in a large stew‑pan until hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard, frying until golden brown, turning as needed.

  3. Remove fritters onto clean paper and keep warm until serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and, with the yolks and whites, give the fritters structure and a tender interior.
Flour
Provides the starch that thickens the batter and gives the fritters their body.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the flour into a batter that fries evenly.
Blanched almonds
Contribute richness, body and a nutty flavour when pounded into the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the hot lard.
Fine lard
Conducts heat for frying, crisping the outside and browning the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, almond, sugar, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipesOrange SherbetOrange Sherbet73 recipes