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Dessert

Apple Sxoav

A dessert of stewed apples topped with custard and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Sxoav

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples.

  2. Stew the apples gently with water, sugar, and cinnamon until reduced to a pulp.

  3. Transfer the apple mixture to a dish.

Make the custard

  1. Make a soft custard by heating milk, egg yolks, sugar, and essence of lemon until thickened.

  2. Let the custard cool, then pour it over the apples.

Top with meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form, then heap it lightly on top.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

Apples
Break down into a pulp that forms the base layer and gives body and flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a soft custard as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Whip into stiff peaks that form the light, airy meringue topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the yolks.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into whipped egg whites to stabilize the meringue and add sweetness.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff peaks form so they can hold air and keep the meringue light. Underwhipped whites will be runny and deflate on top of the custard.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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