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
Combine sliced apples, brandy, white wine, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind in a bowl.
Let sit, turning occasionally.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until light.
Add flour, melted butter, and enough cold water to create a thin batter.
Drain the apples and mix them with the batter.
Fry and serve
Using a spoon, take one slice of apple with a spoonful of batter for each fritter.
Fry the fritters in hot oil until light brown.
Drain well.
Place on a dish and sprinkle with sugar before serving.
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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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together620 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Apples
- Provide the fruit filling and tender texture inside the crisp batter coating.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as it sets in the hot oil.
- Flour
- Forms the body of the batter that coats the apple slices and crisps when fried.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and fat to the batter, contributing to tenderness and flavor.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavor to the apples as they macerate.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until light brown. Oil that is not hot enough lets the batter absorb grease and turn heavy, while overcooking dries the apples. Frying at a steady hot temperature sets the batter quickly into a crisp coating.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, brandy, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, brandy, white wine, sugar, cinnamon, egg, flour. 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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