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Applb Custard Pis

A pie filled with a custard made from apples, eggs, batter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Applb Custard Pis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cook them until soft with minimal water.

  2. Pass the cooked apples through a colander.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs.

Make and bake the pie

  1. Combine the apple puree with the beaten eggs, batter, sugar, and nutmeg.

  2. Pour the mixture into pie crusts and bake.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Cooked to a soft puree, they supply the body, moisture and fruit flavor of the filling.
Eggs
As they heat, their proteins set the puree into a sliceable custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
Nutmeg
Adds warm aroma that complements the apples and custard.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into pie crusts and bake.. Egg proteins set as they heat. Too little baking leaves the filling runny, while too much heat or time can make the custard curdle, weep or turn rubbery.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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