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Apple Meringue Pie

A pie of stewed apples topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Apple Meringue Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Pare and slice apples.

  2. Stew apples until soft.

  3. Sweeten to taste.

  4. Mash apples, adding nutmeg and lemon peel if desired.

  5. Fill pie crust with apple mixture.

  6. Bake until done.

Make the meringue

  1. Whip egg whites until frothy.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks.

  3. Spread meringue over apples, about ¾ inch thick.

  4. If meringue is too thin, add a little cornstarch.

Finish and serve

  1. Return pie to a 400°F (200°C) oven until meringue is set.

  2. Let pie cool.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Provide the soft, tart fruit base that the filling is built on.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they form the light structure of the meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and dissolves into the whites, helping them hold stiff peaks.
Cornstarch
Thickens the meringue slightly when it is too thin to hold its shape.

The step that matters

Whipping the meringue to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped to a stable foam, and sugar added gradually, so the meringue holds its shape. Under-whipped or poorly mixed meringue can weep or collapse in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

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

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