Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Filling

A sweet filling made from grated tart apples, sugar, egg, lemon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the apples

  1. Peel and slice the apples.

  2. Cook the apples with sugar over medium heat until tender.

  3. Sieve the cooked apples through a fine sieve, then add butter and mix well.

Make the egg mixture

  1. In a separate bowl, beat together sugar, egg, lemon juice, and zest.

  2. Cook the mixture until thick, then cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the apple filling between layers of cake.

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

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

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the bulk, moisture and tart flavour of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps draw out moisture from the apples.
Egg
Thickens the custard as its proteins set when heated.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture until thick. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot. Heating gently and stirring keeps it smooth while it thickens.

Swap the apple

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

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

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

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes