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Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried apple slices coated in a thin batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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. Combine sliced apples, brandy, white wine, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind in a bowl.

  2. Let sit, turning occasionally.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Add flour, melted butter, and enough cold water to create a thin batter.

  3. Drain the apples and mix them with the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Using a spoon, take one slice of apple with a spoonful of batter for each fritter.

  2. Fry the fritters in hot oil until light brown.

  3. Drain well.

  4. Place on a dish and sprinkle with sugar 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.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. 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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