Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple or Banana Fritters

Fried batter with sliced apples, served hot with powdered sugar and optional cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 or Banana Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Add egg, salt, milk, and a little sugar; stir to combine.

  3. Pare, core, and slice the apples.

  4. Stir the sliced apples into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of batter into boiling lard.

  2. Fry until golden.

  3. Remove with a skimmer.

  4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon before serving hot.

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. Milk + appletop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together around the apples.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff and turn light.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter so it holds its shape in the fat.
Sour apples
Supply moisture and a tart flavor that contrasts with the sweet coating.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of batter into boiling lard. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the batter soaks up grease and the fritters turn heavy and greasy instead of golden.

“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.

More apple fritters recipes

Potato 3 See all 377 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes