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Parmesan Fritters with Apples

Fried batter of flour, butter, water, cheese, eggs, and apple, served with buttered apple filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Parmesan Fritters with Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Boil the water with the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a paste and cook well.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Add grated cheese and beat into the paste.

  5. Work in the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture for several minutes.

Fry and fill

  1. Fry small fritters until light in color.

  2. Drain the fritters on paper if necessary.

  3. Open each fritter with a fork.

  4. Fill each fritter with a teaspoon of dry stewed apple seasoned with fresh butter.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 paste and gives the fritters their structure as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the paste and add structure and richness as they set in the frying.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the paste and seasons the apple filling.
Dry-stewed apple
Provides sweetness and fruity flavor in the filling.

The step that matters

Work in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually and beating well lets each one fully emulsify into the paste, giving a smooth, glossy batter that holds its shape. Adding them all at once can split the mixture and make the fritters greasy or flat.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cheese, egg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cheese, egg. 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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