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
Make a batter by combining one cup sweet milk, two cups flour, a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, two eggs beaten separately, one tablespoonful of sugar, and a saltspoon of salt.
Heat the milk a little more than milk-warm.
Add the heated milk slowly to the beaten yolks and sugar.
Then add flour and the whites of the eggs.
Stir all together and add thin slices of good sour apples, dipping the batter over them.
Fry and serve
Drop spoonfuls of batter with apple pieces into boiling hot lard.
Fry until light brown.
Serve with maple syrup or a syrup made with clarified sugar.
Other fruits such as bananas, peaches, or sliced oranges may be used in the batter.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the batter that holds the fritter together when fried.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the batter while separately beaten whites add lightness and help it rise.
- Baking powder (in the method)
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters rise and become light.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form a smooth, pourable batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and promotes browning on the outside of the fritters.
The step that matters
Fry in boiling hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisping and browning quickly. Frying in very hot fat sets the outside fast while the inside steams and stays light.
“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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