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
Peel the apples and cut them into ½‑inch thick slices, removing the core with a small round cutter.
Place the apple slices in a pie dish and pour brandy over them. Let them sit for 2 hours.
Make and fry the fritters
In a bowl, make a thick batter using the eggs.
Heat clean lard in a pan until hot.
Fry two apple slices at a time until they are a nice light brown.
Remove the fritters and place them on a sieve lined with paper.
Finish and serve
Dust with powdered sugar and glaze with a shovel or salamander.
Serve on a napkin.
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.
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Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,291 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Russet apples
- Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender inside the crisp fried coating.
- Brandy
- Soaks into the apple slices, adding aroma and flavour before frying.
- Eggs
- Bind the thick batter so it coats the apple slices and holds together in the hot fat.
- Clean lard
- Fries the fritters, conducting heat to brown the batter and crisp its surface.
The step that matters
Frying the fritters in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly. Frying only two slices at a time keeps the fat temperature steady, so the fritters brown evenly and cook through.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, egg, 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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