Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Apple Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, place the flour and create a hollow in the center.
Add the salad oil and slowly pour in the warm water, mixing with a wooden spoon.
Pour the batter into a jug and beat for 10 minutes.
Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.
Prepare and fry the apples
Peel and core the apples, then slice them into ¼‑inch thick pieces.
Coat the apple slices well with the batter.
Heat the clarified fat in an iron pan until a blue steam rises.
Using a skewer, lift the apple slices from the batter and drop them into the hot fat.
Fry until golden on both sides, then remove to porous paper.
Serve
Sprinkle with sugar and keep warm until all are cooked.
Serve piled high on a clean hot napkin.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,140 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Flour
- Forms the batter structure that clings to the apple slices and crisps when fried.
- Eggs
- Whipped whites add air to the batter, making it lighter and more puffed when fried.
- Apples
- Provide the fruit filling that softens inside while the batter cooks around it.
- Salad oil
- Adds fat to the batter, tenderizing it and helping it brown evenly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and a light coating on the finished fritters.
The step that matters
Heating the fat until a blue steam rises. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil instead of crisping, leaving greasy fritters; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the apple softens inside.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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