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Dessert

Apple Fritters

Apple fritters are fried apple slices coated in a batter of flour, egg, and cream.

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 Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine flour, salt, and the yolk of the egg in a bowl.

  2. Add cream and water, mixing until smooth.

  3. Let the batter stand for 1 hour.

  4. Whisk the egg white until stiff.

  5. Gently fold the stiff egg white into the batter with baking powder.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and slice the apples into ¼ inch thick slices, removing the core.

  2. Squeeze lemon juice over the apple slices.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each apple slice into the batter.

  2. Fry the battered slices in boiling fat until golden brown.

  3. Drain the fritters.

  4. If desired, mix a little ground cinnamon with the castor sugar.

  5. Dust the fritters with castor sugar 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Egg
The whisked white adds air and lightness, while the yolk helps bind the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter that coats and holds the apple slices.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the coating puff and become light when fried.
Baking apples
Firm apple slices hold their shape during frying and turn tender and sweet inside.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the batter a softer, more tender coating.

The step that matters

Fry the battered slices in boiling fat until golden brown.. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy and heavy. Very hot fat sets the coating quickly, creating a crisp golden crust while the apple cooks through.

Swap the cinnamon

The recipe marks cinnamon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, flour, cream, lemon, sugar):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, flour, cream, lemon, 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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