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Dessert

Fancy Baked Apples

A baked apple dessert served with a syrup of water, sugar, lemon, and candied fruit, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fancy Baked Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Peel and core the apples, then place them in a baking dish.

  3. Pour ½ cup of water over the apples.

  4. Sprinkle enough sugar to coat each apple and bake until tender.

Make the filling and syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of water, ½ cup of sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind. Cook until sugar dissolves.

  2. Add raisins, cherries, pineapple, and almonds to the syrup and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the apples are done, place them in small glass saucers, fill with the cooked sweets, and pour the syrup over them.

  2. Serve cold with whipped cream.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Apple + pineappletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the fruit base that softens and holds its shape when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and the syrup, and helps the syrup thicken as it cooks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet syrup and balances its flavor.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup until the sugar dissolves. If the sugar is not fully dissolved before the fruit and nuts go in, it can crystallize or leave a grainy texture. Stirring until the liquid is clear helps ensure a smooth syrup.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, raisin, pineapple, almond, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, raisin, pineapple, almond, cream. 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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