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Dessert

French Fritters

A sweet batter fritter made with eggs, flour, milk, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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French Fritters

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

French Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, flour, milk, salt, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan until hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels before serving.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 as they set in the hot oil.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the fritter together when fried.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a spoonable consistency.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the fritters rise and turn light inside.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the outside brown in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, batter soaks up grease and turns heavy and oily. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Hot oil sets the crust quickly so the fritter stays light.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, sugar. 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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