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Dessert

Almond Fritters

A sweet fried dough made from almonds, rose water, cream, egg yolks, biscuits, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Almond Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Pour the rose water over the almonds.

  3. Let the almonds sit for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the cream to the almonds.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 2-3 hours.

  6. Pound the mixture in a mortar until it becomes a paste.

Make the batter

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Add the pounded Naples biscuits.

  3. Sweeten with loaf sugar.

  4. Mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the almond mixture into the pan.

  3. Stir constantly until thick and light brown.

  4. Serve with sifted loaf sugar on top.

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. Almond + biscuittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  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. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the fritters once pounded into a paste.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set thick as it cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.
Naples biscuits
Add body and absorb liquid, helping the mixture hold together.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and helps the mixture brown on the pan.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture and contributes to browning as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until thick and light brown. The mixture contains egg yolks and sugar, which can scorch or curdle over direct heat. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly, so the mixture thickens and browns gently rather than burning on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, cream, egg, biscuit, sugar, butter):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, cream, egg, biscuit, sugar, 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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