Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Apple Meringue
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the apples
Peel, core, and stew the apples in minimal water until soft.
Season the apples with a little butter and place them in a pudding dish.
Bake and top
Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff and spread them over the apples like icing.
Sprinkle sugar on top and let it brown.
Serve
Serve cold with cream.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Apples
- Stewed until soft, they form the moist, tender base beneath the topping.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they set in the oven into a light, airy meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and caramelizes on the meringue surface to give it color.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that rounds out the flavor of the stewed apples.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must form firm peaks to hold their shape and set as a meringue. Underwhipped whites stay runny and slide off the apples, while overwhipped whites turn grainy and dry.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, cream. 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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