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Dessert

Spiced Apple a LA Lyman

A baked apple dessert flavored with cinnamon and sugar, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Spiced Apple a LA Lyman

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe, core and peel the apples.

  2. Arrange the apples in a baking dish.

  3. Mix sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

  4. Fill the cavities of the apples with the mixture.

  5. Add water to the dish.

Bake

  1. Bake until the apples are soft.

  2. Baste often with the syrup.

  3. Remove the dish from the oven.

  4. Cool the apples slightly.

  5. Pile meringue on top of each apple.

  6. Return the dish to the oven.

  7. Bake for eight minutes.

  8. Chill the dish.

Finish

  1. Serve with sugar and cream.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Gradually add powdered sugar.

  4. Add vanilla.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Soften during baking and provide the fruit base of the dessert.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that sets into the meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and forms a syrup with the cooking liquid.
Cinnamon
Adds warm spice aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold firm peaks so the meringue keeps its shape and browns evenly. Under-whipped whites slump and weep, while any trace of fat or yolk stops them from foaming properly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Blueberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Applethe original

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