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Dessert

Beignets De Pommes

Apple fritters made from sliced apples soaked in brandy, lemon, and sugar, fried in butter, and dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

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 ↓

Beignets De Pommes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into thin round slices.

  2. Soak the slices in a mixture of brandy, lemon juice, and sugar until flavored.

  3. Drain the slices and dust them with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. In a chafing dish, heat 3 tablespoons of butter until very hot.

  2. Fry the apple slices on both sides until golden.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon, and serve hot.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Soft tart apples
Provide the fruit that softens and turns tender when fried while keeping its shape.
Flour
Dusting creates a thin coating that helps the slices brown and hold their batter-like crust.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and golden browning to the slices.
Sugar
Sweetens the soaking liquid and caramelizes slightly for browning during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the apple slices on both sides until golden. The butter must be very hot before the slices go in, otherwise the flour coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of browning. Frying on both sides ensures even golden color and a cooked, tender interior.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, brandy, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, brandy, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon. 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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