Why it works: Cinnamon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Apple Fritters for a Dtsh
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, cream or milk, and eggs.
Beat the mixture for 10 minutes with a spoon or whisk.
Pare the apples, cut them in half, core them, and add to the batter.
Fry and serve
Heat the lard in a deep pan until boiling.
Using a fork, take the apple halves out one at a time and fry until golden brown.
Drain the fritters on paper towels.
Serve with sifted sugar, pounded cinnamon, and Seville oranges on the side.
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.
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Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,437 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the batter's structure once it sets in the hot lard.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set and puff as it fries.
- Cream or milk
- Thins the batter and adds moisture and richness.
- Apples
- Provide the main fruit and moisture inside the crisp batter coating.
The step that matters
Frying the apple halves in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough that the batter sets and browns quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs excess fat and turns greasy before the apple is cooked through.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, egg, apple, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, egg, apple, sugar, cinnamon. 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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