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Beignets d’Abricot

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beignets d’Abricot

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the apricots in half and remove the pits.

  2. Cook the apricots in the syrup until tender; cool and drain on a sieve.

  3. Cover the fruit with yeast batter and place them on buttered strips of paper.

  4. Let them stand for 30 minutes in a warm place.

  5. Drop them into plenty of boiling fat and fry until golden.

  6. Drain on a cloth or paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar and ground cinnamon, and serve on a dish covered with a folded napkin.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Syrup + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together990 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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