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Beignets De Pomme — Apple Fritters

Apple fritters made by dipping apple pieces in a sweet batter and frying.

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 De Pomme — Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, sweet oil, salt, egg yolks, orange‑flower water, brandy, and enough water to form a paste.

  2. Whip the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Fold the stiff egg whites into the paste.

  4. Let the paste rest for 2–3 hours to become light.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip apple pieces into the paste.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  3. Drain the fritters.

  4. Dust with white sugar.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

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

Flour
Forms the paste that coats the apples and sets into a crisp, golden shell when fried.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in, they lighten the batter and help it puff.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter so it clings to the apple pieces.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol evaporates quickly in hot oil, leaving a lighter crust.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lightens the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the fritters puff and stay light rather than deflating into a dense coating.

Swap the orange

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

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

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