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Dessert

Fritters, German

A fried apple fritter made with brandy, sugar, cinnamon, flour, and lard, topped with powdered sugar.

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 ↓

Fritters, German

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate and cook the apples

  1. In a pan, combine brandy, sugar, and cinnamon.

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

Fry and serve

  1. In another pan, heat lard until boiling.

  2. Drain the apples, dip them in flour, and fry in the hot lard.

  3. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the fritters and serve.

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 fruit body that softens while cooking and becomes tender inside the crisp coating.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that crisps in the hot fat and holds the batter-like layer to the fruit.
Lard
Heats to high temperature to fry the fritters, giving a crisp, golden surface and rich flavor.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavor to the apples as they cook in the spiced liquid.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and a light finishing touch on the hot fritters.

The step that matters

Frying the floured apples in hot lard. The lard must be fully hot before the apples go in. If it is too cool, the flour absorbs fat and the coating becomes greasy and soggy instead of crisp. Drain the apples well first so excess moisture does not cool the fat or cause spattering.

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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