Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Fritters or Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.
Stir in the flour until the mixture is very thick.
Allow the mixture to cool, then mix in the eggs, sugar, nutmeg, lemon zest, and brandy.
Beat the mixture well for 15 minutes until it is thicker than pancake batter.
Fry and serve
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot lard and fry until golden brown.
Remove from the lard and sprinkle with powdered sugar or spiced sugar before serving.
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.
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the hot lard.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms a thick starch paste with the milk that gives the fritters their body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks with the flour into a thick base and adds tenderness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the hot lard.
- Lemon zest
- Adds bright aroma from the citrus oils without adding liquid.
The step that matters
Beating the batter for 15 minutes. Long beating develops the batter and traps air, giving it the thickness needed to hold its shape in the hot lard. Batter that is too thin spreads and absorbs more fat, so the fritters turn out greasy and flat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, sugar, nutmeg, brandy):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, sugar, nutmeg, brandy. 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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