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Dessert

Apple Float

A dessert of stewed apples in a sweet syrup, served cold with custard and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Float

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the apples

  1. Place the apples in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Stew until they are tender.

Make the syrup and set

  1. Remove the apples and add the sugar to the cooking water.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Return the apples to the pot.

  4. Stew until they are clear and fully cooked.

  5. Slice the lemon into the syrup.

  6. Add the dissolved gelatine and mix well.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Pour the syrup over the apples.

  9. Let it congeal.

  10. Serve cold with cream.

Make the custard and topping

  1. Make a custard with the egg yolks, powdered sugar, and milk.

  2. Spread it over the apples when cold.

  3. Whip the egg whites, flavor with lemon, and place on top of the custard.

  4. Brown in the oven.

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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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
Form the tender fruit base that the syrup is poured over.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps give it body.
Gelatine
Sets the syrup so it holds its shape when cold.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a rich, smooth custard.
Egg whites
Whipped into a light foam that gives the topping its airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard layer.

The step that matters

Spread the custard over the apples when cold. Custard spread over warm apples or syrup can melt the set gelatine and blend the layers, so the custard should be cooled before it is spread.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, milk. 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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