Skip to main content
Dessert

Stewed Apples

A dish of apples stewed in water, optionally sweetened with dates, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and dates work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 119 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Apples

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

  1. Wash the apples thoroughly.

  2. Stew the apples whole, with skins, or cored.

  3. If using tart apples, add a few dates for sweetness.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil the apples in just enough water to cover them until tender.

  2. Pass the stewed apples through a colander and beat until light and spongy.

  3. Place the mixture in a pudding dish and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until moderately browned.

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 + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main body and flavor of the dish as they soften into a pulp.
Dates
Add sweetness to balance the acidity of tart apples.

The step that matters

Pass the stewed apples through a colander and beat until light and spongy. Pressing the cooked apples through a colander makes a smooth pulp, and beating incorporates air into it, which lightens the texture. Under-beating leaves it dense and heavy.

“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.

More stewed apples recipes

with Custard 4for Tarts 3with Butter 3 See all 88 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesDried Apple CakeDried Apple Cake51 recipes