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Dessert

Fritters

A sweet, almond-flavored fritter made with eggs, milk, flour, sugar, nutmeg, and orange flower or cinnamon water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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.

  2. Mix the eggs with new milk and flour to make a thick pancake batter.

  3. Fry the pancake until pale.

  4. Pound the pancake in a mortar until smooth.

  5. Add the yolks of 4 eggs, whites of 2 eggs, orange-flower water or cinnamon water, almond paste, sugar, and nutmeg to the batter.

  6. Pound the mixture until it becomes a smooth batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a large stewpan half full of fine lard until hot.

  2. Drop the batter into the hot lard in sizes of large nuts, filling the surface.

  3. Turn the fritters as they brown.

  4. Remove the fritters onto clean paper in a dish.

  5. Serve as quickly as possible.

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 extra yolks and whites, add richness and set the fritters when fried.
Flour
Forms the thick starchy base of the pancake batter that gives the fritters their body.
New milk
Loosens the flour and eggs into a batter and adds moisture for a tender interior.
Blanched almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and fat from the almond paste, giving the fritters their character.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the eggs and almonds.
Fine lard
Frying fat that conducts heat to brown and crisp the outside of the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying the fritters. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. If it is too cool the fritters soak up fat and turn greasy; if too hot the outside browns before the inside sets. Turning them as they brown gives even colour.

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.

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