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Dessert

Quaker Apple Pie

A pie made with sour apples, puff pastry, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Quaker Apple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake

  1. Slice the sour apples and place them on a large pie plate.

  2. Scatter small bits of butter over the apples.

  3. Cover with puff pastry rolled to about 1/8 inch thick.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the apples are soft and the pastry is golden brown.

Fill the pie

  1. Remove the crust and turn it over onto a clean plate.

  2. Season the apples with sugar, nutmeg, and a pinch of cinnamon, then stir gently to mix.

  3. Spread the seasoned apples smoothly over the crust.

Make and add the topping

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Beat the thick cream until it begins to stiffen.

  3. Mix the cream with the egg whites, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pie once it has cooled.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour apples
Provide the main filling, with tartness that balances the sugar and softens as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the apples.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp, golden crust that holds the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise slightly as they cook.
2 egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the topping its light, airy structure.
3 tablespoons thick cream
Adds body and softness to the topping once whipped.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whipping egg whites traps air in a protein foam. Stopping at stiff peaks keeps the foam light and stable; overbeating makes it dry, grainy and prone to weeping or collapsing when mixed with the cream.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg, cream, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg, cream, vanilla. 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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