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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple Fritters are a batter-based fried dessert made with apples, flour, eggs, milk, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the whole meal flour, egg yolks, milk, and olive oil. Beat until smooth.

  2. Grate the peeled apples into the batter and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a pan. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  2. Serve as desired.

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

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

  2. Olive + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,565 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Whole meal flour
Provides the main structure of the batter and the bulk of the fritter.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and help the fritters rise.
Apples
Add moisture, sweetness and fruity flavour to the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks the air out, leaving dense fritters. Fold gently, keeping the batter as light as possible.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, olive. 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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