Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Fritters

A batter of flour, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, and apples fried and dusted with powdered sugar.

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

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Beat the egg until light, then add the milk and combine with the dry mixture.

  3. Pare, core, and cut the apples into small, uniform pieces; sprinkle with salt and nutmeg.

  4. Add the apple mixture to the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot oil and fry until puffed and light brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 apple pieces.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff up when fried.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set during frying.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a pourable batter with a tender crumb.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness, and fruity flavour that contrasts with the sweet coating.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping and browning. If the oil is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderate heat lets the fritters puff and set evenly.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, 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.

More apple fritters recipes

Potato 3 See all 377 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesDried Apple CakeDried Apple Cake51 recipes