Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Apple Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel, core, and quarter the apples.
Stew the apple quarters with the grated lemon peel in a small amount of water until tender.
Mash the stewed apples until smooth, yielding about 1½ pints.
Mix the mashed apples with ½ cup of sugar and let cool.
Make the custard
Beat the eggs until light and gradually stir them into 1 quart of milk, alternating with the stewed apple mixture.
Pour the mixture into cups or a deep dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.
Serve
Serve cold, garnished with grated nutmeg.
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.
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 flavor, becoming a smooth, sweet purée when stewed and mashed.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the custard its structure and creamy texture.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture and richness, forming the liquid base of the custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon.
- Lemon
- Its grated peel adds aroma and brightness to the stewed apples.
The step that matters
Alternating the eggs, milk and apple mixture. Adding the eggs gradually and combining them with the cooled apple purée helps keep the custard smooth and evenly blended rather than curdled or lumpy.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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