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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried apple slices coated in a yeast batter and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and slice the apples into rounds, removing the cores.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix water to achieve a thick cream consistency.

  2. Beat the egg whites until frothy and add them to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the yeast and let the batter sit in a warm place for 2 hours.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the apple slices in the batter and fry in hot oil until light brown and tender.

  2. Arrange the fritters on a dish and dust with sugar before serving.

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. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Form the main body of each fritter and turn tender as they fry.
Egg whites
Beaten to a froth, they trap air that lightens the batter and helps it puff.
Yeast
Produces gas during the rest, giving the batter a risen, airy texture.
Water
Hydrates the batter so it coats the apple slices in a thick, even layer.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil. Oil that is hot enough sets and browns the batter quickly. If the oil is too cool, the batter soaks up grease before it firms and the fritters turn heavy and oily.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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