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Dessert

Stewed Apples Ahstd Custasd

A dessert of stewed apples served with custard and optional blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Stewed Apples Ahstd Custasd

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the apples

  1. Remove the cores from the apples, leaving the stalks on if possible.

  2. Boil the sugar and water together for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the apples and lemon rind or cloves, and simmer gently until tender, being careful not to break them.

Make the syrup

  1. Place the apples on a glass dish and reduce the syrup by boiling it quickly for a few minutes.

  2. Let the syrup cool slightly, then pour it over the apples.

Serve with custard

  1. Prepare the custard according to recipe No. 1423 and pour it around the apples when they are completely cold.

  2. Optionally, garnish with blanched almonds cut into strips.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

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
Hold their shape as the structure of the dessert while becoming tender when simmered.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken as it reduces around the apples.
Custard
Provides a smooth, creamy sauce that contrasts with the soft, sweet fruit.

The step that matters

Simmering the apples gently. Vigorous boiling can split the fruit and break down its structure, so the apples stay whole and tender only when simmered slowly.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, lemon, sugar):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, lemon, sugar. 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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