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Dessert

Spanish Fritters

A sweet fried roll made with cream, nutmeg, sugar, cinnamon, and egg, served with butter, wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spanish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the French roll into finger‑thick lengths.

  2. Soak the pieces in cream, nutmeg, sugar, cinnamon, and the egg until well soaked.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in butter until golden brown.

  2. Serve with additional butter, wine, and 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

French roll
Forms the bread base that soaks up the custard and fries into a crisp outside.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture so the bread stays soft inside.
Egg
Helps bind the soaking liquid to the bread and aids golden browning when fried.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior caramelise and brown in the butter.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the surface and adds rich flavour.

The step that matters

Fry in butter until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat lets the outside brown and crisp before the soaked centre overheats or the sugar scorches. Too little heat leaves the fritters soggy, while too much burns the outside before the custard sets inside.

“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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