Why it works: Sugar and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 7,168 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Apples with Corn-starch
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Pare and core apples, ensuring uniform size.
In a quart of water, add one half cupful of sugar and the juice of half a lemon.
Boil the apples in this mixture until tender, removing them before they lose shape.
Drain the apples and arrange them in regular order on the serving dish.
Make the sauce
Boil the water down to one half.
Stir in one tablespoonful of corn-starch or arrowroot moistened in a little water.
Cook until the starch is clear.
Remove from the fire.
Flavor the sauce with lemon, almond, kirsch, or any preferred flavor.
Let the sauce stiffen a little.
Pour the sauce over the apples.
Finish
Sprinkle with sugar and place in the oven for a moment to brown.
Alternatively, omit browning and sprinkle the apples with green and pink sugar, or fill them with split almonds.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together7,168 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 (in the method)
- Provide the main body and shape of the dish, softened by gentle simmering.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks, giving it body and a glossy, set texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the poaching syrup and the finished apples, and helps the top brown lightly.
The step that matters
Boil the apples until tender, removing them before they lose shape. Apples keep firming and softening as they cook; overcooking breaks down the pectin and cell walls, so they turn mushy and collapse before serving.
“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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