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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple slices soaked in brandy, coated in a batter of eggs, olive oil, rose water, cold water, and flour, then fried and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

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

  2. Soak the apple slices in brandy for 2 to 3 hours.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, olive oil, rose water, and cold water.

  2. Gradually stir in flour until the batter thickens.

  3. Let the batter sit for 2 to 3 hours to become light.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter in a frying pan.

  2. Dip each apple slice into the batter and fry until brown.

  3. Drain the fritters, sprinkle with white sugar, and serve.

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 + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + olivetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,565 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  5. Flour + sugartop 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

Pippin apples
Provide the fruit that is coated, softened slightly and flavoured by the brandy.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set and brown when fried.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it coats each apple slice.
Brandy
Soaks into the apple slices, adding aroma and flavour.
Butter
Fries the fritters, adding fat for browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the coated apple slices until brown. Frying at a steady heat sets the batter into a crisp coating before the apple turns mushy. Oil or butter that is too cool lets the batter soak up grease, while overly hot fat browns the outside before the apple is cooked through.

Swap the apple

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

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

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