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Peach Fritters

A batter-coated peach half fried and dusted with powdered sugar.

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

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 ↓

Peach Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  2. Heat the yolks until well mixed, then add the cold water and stir into the flour.

  3. Add the salt and melted butter, mixing until perfectly smooth.

  4. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Pare, halve, and stone the peaches.

  2. Heat a deep kettle of oil until smoking hot.

  3. Dip each peach half in the batter and drop into the hot oil.

  4. Turn the peaches to ensure even coloring.

  5. Drain on unglazed paper and dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + peachtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together860 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter that coats the peaches.
Eggs
Whipped whites add lightness, while yolks enrich and bind the batter.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the batter.
Peaches
Provide the sweet, juicy fruit filling inside the crisp coating.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air that lightens the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates it and leaves the fritters dense.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, 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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