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Dessert

Braehme Apple Cake

A baked apple cake with sour cream, butter, and crushed zwieback crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Braehme Apple Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel and slice the apples.

  2. Combine butter and sugar in a saucepan.

  3. Steam the mixture for 15 minutes.

  4. Beat the eggs well.

  5. Mix in sour cream and vanilla extract.

  6. Add the egg mixture to the apples.

  7. Steam the mixture until it thickens slightly, shaking continuously.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a springform baking pan.

  2. Line the pan with zwieback crumbs.

  3. Pour the apple mixture into the pan.

  4. Top with more zwieback crumbs and small pieces of butter.

  5. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve warm (not hot) or 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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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 bulk of the filling and its tart, fruity flavour.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, and helps the filling become smooth and creamy.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when heated.
Sweet zwieback
Forms the crumb layers that line and top the cake, adding structure and a toasted base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the top brown.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Steam the mixture until it thickens slightly, shaking continuously.. Eggs thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Constant shaking spreads heat evenly so the mixture thickens smoothly without scrambling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Applethe original

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