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Dessert

Apple Custard Pie

A pie made with stewed apples, sugar, butter, cinnamon, eggs, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Custard 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.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, core, and stew the apples.

  2. Rub the stewed apples through a colander.

Make the filling

  1. To 1½ cups of apple, add the sugar, butter, cinnamon, and beaten eggs.

  2. Mix well and pour into a pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Use the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar to make a meringue.

  2. Spread the meringue on top and brown it in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a short time.

  3. Bake the pie for 30 minutes.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Sour apples
Provide the bulk and tart flavor that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the filling its body and structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and stabilizes the egg white foam of the meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Browning the meringue. Egg white foam stabilized by sugar sets in the oven, but overbaking makes it weep, shrink, and turn tough. Brown it briefly and watch it closely.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon. 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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