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Dessert

Beignets

A batter-coated fruit slice fried and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Beignets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, water, sugar, salad oil, and orange-flower water to form a batter.

  2. Just before using, beat the egg whites until frothy.

Fry

  1. Dip fruit slices into the batter, ensuring they are well coated.

  2. Heat oil in a pan until very hot.

  3. Fry the coated fruit slices until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

Finish

  1. Dust with fine sugar and serve immediately.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,821 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the starch and gluten network that gives the batter its body and coating structure.
Egg whites
Beaten until frothy, they add air and lightness to the batter.
Salad oil
Adds fat that keeps the fried coating tender and helps it brown.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the coating turn golden brown when fried.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that flavours the batter.

The step that matters

Heat the oil until very hot before frying. Oil that is hot enough sets the batter quickly and browns the coating. If the oil is too cool, the batter soaks up oil and turns greasy and heavy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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