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German Fritters

Apple fritters made with brandy, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓

German Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Combine brandy, powdered sugar, and cinnamon in a pan.

  2. Add the apples and cook over gentle heat, stirring often without breaking them.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in another pan until boiling.

  2. Drain the apples, dust them with flour, and fry in the hot lard until golden brown.

  3. Serve the fritters sprinkled with 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. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Brandy + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  5. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Apples
Provide the main body and fruity flavor of the fritter.
Flour
Dusting forms a light coating that helps the fritters brown and crisp when fried.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavor and helps carry the cinnamon and sugar into the apples.
Lard
Frying fat that conducts heat and gives the fritters a golden, crisp surface.

The step that matters

Frying the dusted apples in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the apples absorb fat and turn greasy before browning. Flour dusting helps the coating brown evenly, so the apples should be fried promptly once drained and dusted.

Swap the apple

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

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

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