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Dessert

Apple or Banana Fritters

Fried batter-coated apple or banana slices served hot with powdered sugar and optional cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon 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 ↓

Apple or Banana Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.

  2. Add the egg, salt, milk, and a little sugar, then stir until smooth.

  3. Fold in the apple slices.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into boiling lard and fry until golden brown.

  2. Remove with a skimmer.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon before serving 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the batter together as it fries.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters puff and turn light rather than dense.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the fritter.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour hydrates into a spoonable batter.
Sour apples
Supply tartness and moisture, and their slices set into the fried batter.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. Batter dropped into oil that is not hot enough absorbs fat and turns greasy, while overly hot oil browns the outside before the centre cooks. Holding the lard at a steady boil and frying until golden gives a crisp exterior with a cooked interior.

“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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