Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Apple Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift together the flour, salt, and sugar.
Gradually add water while beating constantly.
Stir in the olive oil and beaten egg white. Beat the batter thoroughly.
Prepare the apples
Core and peel the tart apples, sprinkle with lemon juice, and dredge with sugar; let stand for one hour.
Drain the apple slices and drop them into the batter.
Fry and serve
Fry in deep, hot fat until golden.
Drain on brown paper, dredge lightly with powdered sugar, and serve with lemon sauce.
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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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Olive + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,565 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread flour
- Forms the main structure of the batter that coats and holds the apple slices.
- Egg white
- Beaten stiff, it lightens the batter and helps it puff and set during frying.
- Tart apples
- Provide the fruit filling and a tangy contrast to the sweet coating.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat that enriches the batter and contributes to a tender texture.
The step that matters
Frying in deep, hot fat until golden. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Too hot and the outside browns before the apple cooks through.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, flour, olive, sugar, egg, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, flour, olive, sugar, egg, lemon. 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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