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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried apple rings coated in a batter and dusted with sugar and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

  1. Pare and core the apples, then cut them into rings.

  2. Dust the apple rings with sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until light, then add the milk and salt.

  2. Gradually mix in enough flour to create a soft batter, then add the baking powder and beat again.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a deep pan of lard until very hot.

  2. Dip each apple ring into the batter, then drop it into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown, then serve hot, dusted with powdered sugar.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

Tart apples
Provide the fruit that softens and flavours each fritter as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot fat.
All-purpose flour
Forms the body of the batter, giving it enough structure to coat the apple rings.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff and turn light.
Milk
Thins the batter to a smooth, coating consistency.
Lard
Fries the batter quickly, giving a crisp, golden-brown outside.

The step that matters

Frying the battered rings. The lard must be very hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the coating quickly and browns it, so the fritters stay crisp rather than soaking up grease and turning heavy.

Swap the apple

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

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

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