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Dessert

Apples with Custard, Pancake of

A pancake made with apples and custard, served with sifted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apples with Custard, Pancake of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and slice the apples.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and fry the apples until brown on one side.

  2. Turn the apples over and pour the custard made from beaten eggs, cream or milk, and cinnamon over them.

  3. Fry until the custard is light brown.

  4. Turn carefully and serve with sifted sugar.

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Beaten into the custard, where they set when cooked to form a tender, sliceable layer.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness to the custard, keeping it soft once set.
Apples
Provide the fruit base, softening and browning in the butter under the custard.
Butter
Fat for frying that helps the apples brown and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Fry until the custard is light brown. Egg custard sets as its proteins coagulate with heat, so cooking gently until just set keeps it tender. Overcooking at high heat makes it tough and grainy, while underdone custard stays runny and will not hold together when turned.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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