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Dessert

Fritters

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

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 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, blanched almonds, sugar, and nutmeg.

  6. Pound until it becomes a smooth batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a large stew-pan half full of fine lard until hot.

  2. Drop the batter into the lard in large nut-sized portions.

  3. Turn them as they brown.

  4. Remove to clean paper when done and serve immediately.

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
Provide structure and richness, binding the batter and setting as the fritters fry.
Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a batter that holds its shape when fried.
Blanched almonds
Supply the main flavour and a soft, rich texture within the fritter.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown as they fry.
New milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the flour into a pourable batter.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of setting and browning quickly. Turning the portions as they brown ensures even colour and cooking 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.

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