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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried dough balls with apples and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix in the milk in another bowl.

  3. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until smooth.

  4. Fold in the currants and chopped apples.

Fry and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into cone shapes.

  2. Heat lard in a deep pan.

  3. Fry the fritters until golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during frying.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the fritters puff up.
Sugar
Sweetens the fritters and helps them brown in the hot lard.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter.
Chopped apples
Add moisture and fruity flavor throughout each fritter.

The step that matters

Fry the fritters until golden brown. Lard must be hot enough to crisp the outside quickly; if it is too cool, the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy and dense before they set. Frying until golden brown means the interior has cooked through as well as the surface browned.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, milk, cinnamon, allspice, apple):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, milk, cinnamon, allspice, apple. 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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