Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Egg Fritters Sweet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs together, yolks and whites.
Add sugar and cream, then mix in enough flour to create a stiff paste.
Fry and finish
Heat boiling fat in a pan.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot fat and fry until golden brown.
Remove and strain on paper, then sprinkle with sifted sugar.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Provide structure and richness, binding the batter together.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff paste that gives the fritters their body.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fritters brown in the fat.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot fat and fry until golden brown.. The fat must be boiling hot before the batter goes in. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb more fat and turn greasy instead of crisping and browning on the outside.
“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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