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Apple Meringue Pie

A baked apple pie topped with a sweet meringue crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,501 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Meringue Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel the apples.

  2. Slice the apples.

  3. Stew the apples until soft.

  4. Mash the apples.

  5. Sweeten the apples with nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Make and add the meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites until frothy.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla, beating until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the meringue over the apples, about ¾ inch thick.

  4. Return the pie to the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the meringue is set and lightly browned.

  5. Let the pie cool 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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Provide the bulk and tart flavor of the filling, softening when stewed and mashed.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that sets into the light, stable meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, stabilizing the meringue and sweetening the topping.

The step that matters

Beating the meringue to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks and sugar is added gradually so the foam stays stable. Underwhipped or greasy whites collapse or weep in the oven, and the meringue will not set properly over the filling.

Swap the apple

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

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

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