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Dessert

Apple Float

A custard dessert topped with whipped egg whites and grated apples, flavored with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Float

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine the yolks of 3 eggs with 1 quart of milk and 1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch to make a soft custard.

  2. Pour the custard into a dish and let it cool.

Make the apple topping

  1. Beat the whites of 3 eggs until stiff.

  2. Grate 4 large tart apples and mix them with the egg whites and 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Alternatively, use 1 pint of baked or stewed apples, 3 egg whites, and 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  4. Beat until the mixture is stiff enough to stand alone.

Assemble

  1. Fill a dish with the cold custard and pile the apple mixture on top.

  2. Flavor with vanilla extract.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a soft custard as they set with heat.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the apple topping its light, airy structure.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk so the custard holds a soft, spoonable body.
Tart apples
Add acidity and bulk to the topping, balancing the sweetness of the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple topping and helps the whipped whites hold their shape.

The step that matters

Beat the apple and egg white mixture until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they form stiff peaks so the mixture can hold its shape on the custard. Under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, corn, sugar, 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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