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Dessert

Snow, Apple

A baked apple dessert folded with beaten egg whites and flavored with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon peel.

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 ↓

Snow, Apple

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Bake the apples until tender enough to peel.

  2. Rub the apples through a fine sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Add sugar, pounded cinnamon, and grated lemon peel, stirring continuously for 15 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture, stirring gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a hoop on a sheet of paper and pour the mixture in.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).

  3. Optionally, ice the apple snow before serving.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Apples
Provide the pulp that forms the body and bulk of the dish.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the snow its light, set structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple pulp and balances its natural tartness.
Pounded cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the cooked apples.
Grated lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the flavour of the apples.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the dish its lightness. Stirring vigorously or over-mixing deflates the foam, so the snow turns dense instead of airy when baked.

Swap the apple

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

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

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