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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are small fried cakes made with apples, eggs, flour, and milk, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly.

  2. Add the sweet milk and sliced apples, then mix well.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan until boiling.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the boiling lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove from the lard and drain on paper towels.

  4. Dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar before serving.

  5. Serve with cream or sauce.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during frying.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the fritters their body.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it fries through while staying tender.
Sliced apples
Supply moisture and fruity flavor, cooking through in the hot fat.
Lard
Heat-transfers evenly to crisp and brown the outside of each fritter.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into boiling lard. Fat that is not hot enough lets batter soak up oil and turn greasy, while overcrowding drops the fat temperature. Frying in small batches in properly hot fat sets the crust quickly and keeps the fritters light.

Swap the apple

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

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

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