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Dessert

Apple Custard Pie

A custard pie made with stewed apples, eggs, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Custard Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and core the sour apples.

  2. Stew them in a small amount of water until soft.

  3. Pass the cooked apples through a colander to create a smooth puree.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat 3 eggs for each pie.

  2. For every 3 pies, mix in ⅓ cup of butter and ⅓ cup of sugar.

  3. Season the mixture with nutmeg.

  4. Pour the filling into pie crusts.

Top and finish

  1. Top with frosting, similar to lemon pie.

  2. Return the pies to the oven for a few minutes to improve appearance.

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 + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 main fruit body and tart flavour of the filling once puréed.
Eggs
Set the smooth custard filling as they cook, giving it body and structure.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth mouthfeel to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and contributes to browning on the surface.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the filling.

The step that matters

Pass the cooked apples through a colander. Cooked apples must be fully soft and pressed smooth; any lumps or fibrous bits will remain in the filling and spoil its silky texture. Egg-thickened custards also need gentle heat so the eggs set without curdling.

Swap the apple

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

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

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