It is made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk, traditionally cooked in an appachatti, a deep pan similar in shape to a wok.

Appam (also aapa, appe) may derive from the Sanskrit word (अपूप apupa), which refers to a type of "fried dainty.

"[2] Vir Sanghvi, an Indian journalist, quotes food historian K. T. Achaya and states that the appam is mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature, in works like Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai.

Vendors, who sell delicate appams that are like honeycombs and modakam that are made by hand filled with coconut and sugar sweet and pulses, go to sleep.

[10] There are multiple styles of fermenting appam, and some Jewish historians have noted that the Cochin Jews of Kerala used fresh toddy instead of yeast.

It is served for breakfast with a thin curry of fish or chicken, containing only one or two pieces of meat, a dhal (lentil) dish, and a spicy sambol or fresh chutney.

This simple dish can be adapted into other foods such as string hopper biriyani, by adding scrambled eggs or vegetables.

[14] Kuzhalappam is a typical Syrian Christian-Saint Thomas Christians dish which is a fried crisp curled up like a tube.

[17] It is made with rice flour, jaggery and clarified butter ghee, which is the traditional method of making Nei appam.

The batter is made out of rice flour, jaggery and plantain and is poured into a vessel called appakarai or appakaram, which has ghee heated to a high temperature.