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Dessert

Cremated Apples

A dessert of boiled apples topped with marmalade and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cremated Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Poach the apples

  1. Choose apples that will cook nicely without breaking.

  2. Pare and core the apples whole.

  3. Make a syrup with 1 pound of sugar and 1 pint of water.

  4. Add the apples to the syrup and boil gently until three-fourths done.

  5. Remove the apples from the syrup.

Fill and glaze

  1. Place the apples in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes.

  2. Boil down the syrup.

  3. Fill the center of each hot apple with marmalade.

  4. Roll each apple in the syrup.

  5. Arrange the apples on a dish in a dome shape.

Meringue and brown

  1. Pour a meringue made from eggs and sugar over the apples.

  2. Return the dish to the oven to brown the meringue.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Form the main body of the dish, cooked gently until tender but still holding their shape.
Sugar
Sweetens the poaching syrup and makes up the meringue, which gives sweetness and a glossy coating.
Eggs
Form the meringue structure, whose proteins set and hold the foam when baked.
Marmalade
Fills the apple centers, adding sweetness and acidity.

The step that matters

Boil the apples until three-fourths done. Cooking gently keeps the apples from breaking while still letting them soften. Because they return to the oven later, undercooking leaves them firm and overcooking makes them collapse under the meringue.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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