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Dessert

Lemon Fritters

A fried batter of eggs, flour, lemon, spices, served with a lemon‑wine glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks with powdered sugar until smooth.

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

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites, then add flour gradually.

  4. Work into a soft paste, about ¾ inch thick.

Fry and serve

  1. Cut into small circles using a tumbler or cake cutter.

  2. Fry in hot lard until puffed and golden.

  3. Drain on clean paper and serve warm.

  4. For the sauce, mix lemon juice, lemon peel, powdered sugar, wine, and beaten egg whites until smooth.

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

Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and add richness and colour to the paste.
Egg whites
Whipped into the batter to lighten it and help the fritters puff when fried.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the soft paste that holds the fritters together.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the egg yolks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the paste, giving a tender texture.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until puffed and golden. If the lard is not hot enough, the fritters absorb grease and turn heavy instead of puffing. Oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks through.

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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