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Dessert

Apple Meringue Pie

Apple Meringue Pie is a pie with sliced apples topped with a meringue crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix sliced apples, 1 cup sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt.

  3. Pour the apple mixture into a pie crust.

  4. Bake for 25 minutes until apples are tender.

Make and add the meringue

  1. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add 1 tablespoon sugar and vanilla, beating until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread meringue over the baked pie, sealing edges.

  4. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes until meringue is golden.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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 tender body of the pie filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue become stable and glossy.
Cornstarch
Thickens the apple juices so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and balances the sweetness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites under-whipped will weep and collapse, while over-whipped whites turn grainy and dry. Adding sugar gradually helps the foam stay stable and glossy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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