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Dessert

Pretty Apples

A dessert of apples simmered in syrup, garnished with almonds, cherries, nuts, bananas, and marshmallows.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 435 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Pretty Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the apples

  1. Pare and core the apples.

  2. In a saucepan, combine sugar and water to make a syrup.

  3. When the syrup thickens, add the apples.

  4. Carefully turn the apples with a fork until they are tender.

  5. Remove the apples from heat.

  6. Place the apples on a platter.

Fill and glaze

  1. Once cool, stick blanched almonds around the apples.

  2. Fill the cavities of the apples with cherries and nuts.

  3. Cook the syrup until it jellies.

  4. Pour the jellied syrup over the apples.

Alternative and bake

  1. (Alternative) Add the apples to hot syrup with maple syrup.

  2. Fill the cavities of the apples with bananas.

  3. Carefully turn the apples until tender.

  4. Remove the apples from heat.

  5. Place a marshmallow on each apple.

  6. Brown the marshmallows in the oven.

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. Apple + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together435 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Almond + nutstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Almond + bananatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Apple + maple syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

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

  5. Nuts + maple syruptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the main body of the dessert, softening as they poach until tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, as it concentrates, helps it thicken and set into a jelly.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and a distinct caramel-like flavor to the hot syrup in the alternative method.
Marshmallows
Soften and brown on top of the apples in the oven, adding sweetness and color.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup until it jellies. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and the sugar concentration rises; cooking too little leaves it runny, while cooking too far can make it stiff once it cools.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, almond, nuts, maple syrup, banana. 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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