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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are apple slices coated in a thick batter and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Core and peel the apples.

  2. Slice the apples into ¼ inch thick slices.

  3. Sprinkle the slices with sugar and cinnamon or nutmeg, and set aside.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar, ½ cup of sweet milk, and enough flour to create a thick batter.

  3. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and mix it into the batter.

  4. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each apple slice into the batter, ensuring it is well coated.

  2. Heat enough cocoa butter or vegetable oil in a kettle to float the fritters.

  3. Fry the apple slices until soft and golden brown on both sides.

  4. Drain the fritters, trim any excess batter, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  5. Serve hot.

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.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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, and whipped whites lighten it for a airy coating.
Flour
Forms the thick batter that coats the apple slices and sets as it fries.
Apples
Provide the main filling, softening inside the batter while the coating crisps.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and batter and helps the coating brown.

The step that matters

Frying until soft and golden on both sides. The batter must cook through and brown without burning, while the apple softens. Oil that is too cool makes greasy fritters, and oil that is too hot browns the outside before the apple is tender.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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