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Dessert

Apples a LA Parisienne

Apples à la Parisienne is a dessert of sliced apples topped with sponge cake, marmalade, meringue, and almonds, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Apples a LA Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and halve the sour apples, removing the cores.

  2. Cook the apples with sugar and water, ensuring they retain their shape.

  3. Drain the apples and place each half on a round of stale sponge cake.

Top and bake

  1. Sprinkle lightly with orange juice and spread with marmalade.

  2. Cover the apples with meringue and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

  3. Bake in the oven until browned delicately.

  4. Serve 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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Sour apples
Hold their shape when cooked and provide a tart contrast to the sweet toppings.
Sugar
Sweetens the poaching syrup and adds sweetness to the dish.
Stale sponge cake
Acts as a absorbent base that soaks up juices and supports each apple half.
Meringue
Forms a light topping that browns in the oven as its sugars and proteins react.
Marmalade
Adds sweetness, citrus aroma and a fruity layer between the cake and meringue.

The step that matters

Cook the apples with sugar and water, ensuring they retain their shape. Overcooked apples turn soft and collapse, so they cannot hold their form under the meringue. Cooking gently until just tender keeps the halves intact through baking.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, almond. 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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