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Dessert

Baked Apples

A simple baked apple dessert with sugar, egg white, and blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,025 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Baked Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash the apples well and remove the core using a clothes-pin.

  2. Fill the cavity of each apple with sugar.

  3. Place the apples in a granite pie tin and add 2 tablespoons of water.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the apples are tender but not mushy.

  2. Remove from the oven and fill the cavities with the beaten egg white sweetened with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  3. Top each apple with a blanched almond and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes to cook the egg.

  4. Serve hot or 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 + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Good tart apples
Hold their shape while baking and provide the main body and tart flavour of the dish.
Egg white
Sets when heated, forming a light topping that fills the apple cavities.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and balances the tartness of the fruit.

The step that matters

Return the filled apples to the oven for 2-3 minutes. The egg white must be heated enough to set and become safe to eat, but a short time keeps it from over-browning or toughening. Too long can dry the apple and make the topping rubbery.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond. 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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