Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Apple Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Warm the milk and slowly add it to the beaten egg yolks.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Combine the milk mixture with the flour mixture and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Fry the apples
Peel and core the apples, then slice them crosswise.
Dip the apple slices into the batter, then carefully drop them into hot lard.
Fry until golden brown, then remove with a spoon or fork.
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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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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Yolks enrich the batter while whipped whites lighten it and help it puff when fried.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the batter around the apple slices as it fries.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and turn light and airy.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter to a coating consistency.
The step that matters
Dropping the battered apples into hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and becomes greasy instead of setting quickly into a crisp, golden coating. Carefully lowering the slices keeps the oil temperature steady and avoids splattering.
“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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