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Dessert

Apple-fritters

A batter of eggs, cream, wine, ale, spices, and apples fried into golden fritters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple-fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and the whites of 4 eggs together, then strain into a pan.

  2. Heat 1 quart of cream until warm, then mix in ½ cup of sweet wine and ¾ pint of ale to make a posset.

  3. Once cooled, combine the posset with the egg mixture, beating well.

  4. Add nutmeg, ginger, salt, and enough flour to create a thick batter.

  5. Fold in sliced or scraped apples.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil or butter in a pan and fry spoonfuls of the batter quickly until golden brown.

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. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Wine + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and help the batter set into a custard-like texture when cooked.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness, helping the batter hold its shape in the pan.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the fritters a tender, moist interior.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it forms a batter that holds its shape when fried.
Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that contrast with the rich batter.

The step that matters

Fry quickly until golden brown. Frying in hot oil or butter sets the outside quickly and browns it before the moist, custard-like interior overcooks or the fritter becomes greasy. Oil that is too cool lets the batter soak up fat.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, wine, nutmeg, flour, apple, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, wine, nutmeg, flour, apple, butter. 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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