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Dessert

Beignets a LA Milanaise

A sweet fritter made from milk, semolina, sugar, vanilla, butter, egg yolks, almonds, lemon rind, and fried in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Beignets a LA Milanaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the semolina base

  1. Combine milk, loaf sugar, and vanilla pod in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in semolina while boiling and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add fresh butter and cook slowly for 20 minutes.

  4. Remove the vanilla pod, then stir in egg yolks, chopped almonds, and lemon rind.

Set and shape

  1. Reheat the mixture and spread it onto a buttered tin. Let it cool.

  2. Once cooled, stamp out rings the size of apple rings.

  3. Brush the rings with a mixture of apricot jam and maraschino.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the rings into a light frying batter and fry in clarified butter until golden brown.

  2. Drain the fritters, dust with icing sugar, and serve hot with chocolate sauce.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Semolina + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a firm mass that sets as it cools, so the rings hold their shape.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard base and help bind it, adding richness and a set texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid that the semolina swells in and cooks into a thick base.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the cooked base.
Clarified butter
Fries the coated rings to a golden brown crust with a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the semolina slowly for 20 minutes. Semolina must be cooked long enough for its starch to swell fully, or the mixture stays grainy and will not set firm enough to cut. Stirring keeps it from scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, vanilla, semolina, butter, egg, almond):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, vanilla, semolina, butter, egg, almond. 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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