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Dessert

Apple Dainty

A baked apple dessert with candied apples topped with custard and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Dainty

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In an earthen dish, combine the apples, sugar, cold water, and cloves.

  3. Cover tightly and bake slowly for 8 hours until the apples are candied and deep red.

Make the custard and meringue

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and scalded milk to make the custard.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.

Serve

  1. Serve the baked apples piled lightly on a dish, topped with the custard and the beaten egg whites.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Clove + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 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
Soften into a candied, sweet filling as they bake slowly under cover.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard when whisked and gently heated.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light, airy topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and custard and helps the apples candy as they bake.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks, since under-whipped whites will collapse and make the topping watery rather than light and airy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

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