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Dessert

Apple Custard Pie I

A pie filled with custard made from apple puree, sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Custard Pie I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crust

  1. Line a pie plate with Short Crust.

  2. If desired, add a rim of Puff Paste.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix apple puree, sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and egg yolks until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until set.

  2. Serve with whipped cream or meringue on top.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and help it set firm when baked.
Apple puree
Provides the main apple flavor and moisture for the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves a runny filling while overbaking can make it curdle or weep. Check that the centre barely wobbles before removing the pie.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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