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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried batter with apples, served with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then mix in the milk, salt, baking powder, and chopped apple.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

Fry the fritters

  1. Heat lard in a pan, then drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard.

  2. Fry until golden brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine 1 egg, sugar, butter, and cornstarch in a saucepan.

  2. Pour in boiling water and stir until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and add vanilla to taste.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the hot lard.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the fritters puff and turn light.
Chopped apple
Adds moisture and fruity flavour to the batter.
Flour
Forms the batter's structure so it holds its shape when fried.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and glossy.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the fritters. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy and dense instead of browning crisply on the outside.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, sauce, sugar, butter, vanilla. 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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