Skip to main content
Dessert

Beignet De Pommes

Apple fritters made by frying apple slices coated in butter and sugar, flavored with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beignet De Pommes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel the apples and cut them into 7 or 8 slices, removing the cores.

  2. Place the slices on a dish and sprinkle with castor sugar.

  3. Drizzle the brandy over the apple slices.

  4. Dip each slice in butter.

Fry

  1. Fry the slices in a basket in boiling oil or clarified dripping for about 3 minutes, until golden.

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 + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples
Provide the main body and tart flavour of the fritters, softening as they cook.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apple slices take on a golden colour when fried.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavour to the apple slices.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the coating on each slice.

The step that matters

Frying the slices. Oil must be boiling before the slices go in. If it is too cool, the slices absorb oil and turn greasy instead of crisping and browning quickly. Frying for about 3 minutes until golden gives a crisp exterior while the apple cooks through.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, butter. 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.

More apple fritters recipes

Potato 3 See all 377 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes