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Dessert

Apple and Peach Meringue Pie

A pie filled with stewed apples or peaches topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Apple and Peach Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the apples or peaches.

  2. Sweeten the stewed fruit to taste.

  3. Mash the stewed fruit until smooth.

  4. Season the mash with nutmeg.

  5. Fill the pie crusts with the fruit mash.

  6. Bake the filled crusts until just done, without a top crust.

Make and set the meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Sweeten the whipped egg whites with powdered sugar.

  3. Flavor the meringue with rose-water or vanilla.

  4. Beat the flavored meringue until it stands alone.

  5. Spread the meringue on the pie, ½ to 1 inch thick.

  6. Return the pie to the oven until the meringue is well set.

  7. Serve cold.

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. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Apple + rosetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together235 recipes

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

Nutmeg and egg 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 or peaches
Form the main fruit filling, providing bulk, flavor and moisture for the pie.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam and set in the oven to form the light, stable meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, sweetening and helping stabilize the meringue.
Sugar
Sweetens the stewed fruit and balances its natural tartness.

The step that matters

Beat the flavored meringue until it stands alone. Whites must be whipped until stiff and glossy so the meringue holds its shape. Under-beaten whites weep and slump, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the apple

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

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

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