Name: Apple Snow
Ingredients: 4 tart apples; juice of ½ lemon; sugar to taste; 4 egg whites

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Snow

Ingredients

4 tart apples
juice of ½ lemon
sugar to taste
4 egg whites

Directions

Prepare the apples

Pare, quarter, and core the apples.
Steam the apples until soft, then rub through a sieve.
Add the lemon juice and sweeten to taste.

Make the snow

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then gradually add the apple mixture while beating constantly.
Pile the mixture lightly in a glass dish or serve in high glasses.
Chill 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.

Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Tart apples: Provide the main body and flavour, and their pectin helps the purée hold its shape.
Egg whites: Whipped into stiff peaks, they form the airy foam that gives the dessert its light, snowy texture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and keeps the apple flavour fresh.
Sugar: Sweetens the purée and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites into the apple mixture. Egg whites must reach stiff peaks before the apple purée is added, and the purée should be folded or beaten in gradually. Adding it too fast or to under-whipped whites deflates the foam, so the dessert loses its light texture.