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Apple Meringue Pies

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Peel and slice the apples, then stew and sweeten them until soft.

  2. Mash the apples smooth and season with nutmeg. Optionally, stew some lemon peel with the apples and remove it when cold.

  3. Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture and bake until just done.

  4. Whip the eggs to a stiff froth, sweetening with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar for each egg.

  5. Flavor the meringue with rose water or vanilla, then beat until it holds its shape.

  6. Spread the meringue over the pie, about ¾ inch thick.

  7. Return the pie to the oven until the meringue is set. If it darkens too much, sift powdered sugar over it when cold.

  8. Serve the pie 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 + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + rosetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Quincefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, nutmeg, egg, sugar, rose. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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