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Dessert

Lemon Fritters

A fried dough fritter flavored with lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, and served with a lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Lemon Fritters

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lemon Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with powdered sugar until smooth.

  2. Add grated lemon peel, nutmeg and cinnamon mixture, salt, and cream; mix well.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  4. Stir in the flour until a soft paste forms, just stiff enough to roll out.

  5. Roll out the dough to about ¾ inch thick and cut into small circular shapes.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cakes in hot lard until they puff up like crullers.

  2. Drain the fritters on clean paper.

  3. Serve warm with lemon sauce made from lemon juice, grated lemon peel, powdered sugar, white wine, and beaten egg whites.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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
Yolks enrich the dough and whites, folded in, lighten it and help the fritters puff.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that lets the paste hold its shape when rolled and cut.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and dissolves smoothly into the yolks for a fine, even texture.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dough a richer, more tender crumb.
Lard
Fat for frying that transfers heat quickly, browning the outside and crisping the surface.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour to the sauce that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the fritters absorb grease and turn heavy instead of puffing and browning. Hot fat seals the outside quickly so steam expands the dough.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, flour, sauce):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, flour, sauce. 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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