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Pineapple Fritters

A fried pineapple slice coated in a sweet batter, served dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Peel the pineapple, minimizing waste.

  2. Cut the pineapple into thick slices.

  3. Place the slices in a shallow dish.

  4. Sprinkle the slices with powdered sugar.

  5. Pour the brandy, Curacao, or maraschino over the pineapple.

  6. Let the pineapple soak for 5 hours.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour and salt.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs to the flour mixture.

  3. Add the clarified butter to the flour mixture.

  4. Gradually pour in the lukewarm water or beer while beating until smooth.

  5. Let the batter rest for 2-3 hours.

  6. Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth.

  7. Fold the whisked egg whites into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the pineapple slices into the batter.

  2. Drop the battered slices into boiling oil.

  3. Fry until crisp and brown on both sides, about 6-8 minutes.

  4. Drain the fritters.

  5. Serve immediately, 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pineapple + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Pineapple + beertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Brandy + beertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter 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

Pineapple
Forms the fruit centre of each fritter and releases juice that flavours the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter around the fruit as it fries.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it for a airy crust.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and helps the fritter crisp and brown as it fries.
Lukewarm water or beer
Hydrates the flour to form a pourable batter; beer also adds lightness through carbonation.
Brandy, curacao, or maraschino
Soaks into the pineapple, adding aroma and a spirited flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the batter light. Stirring them in vigorously knocks the air out, leaving dense fritters, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, flour, egg, butter, beer. 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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