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Dessert

Apple Meringue Pie

A pie of stewed apples topped with a meringue crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the apples with a little water until tender.

  2. Sweeten to taste and add cinnamon, butter, and the beaten egg yolk.

  3. Fill the pie plates and bake until just done.

Make and bake the meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth, then add powdered sugar and flour.

  2. Beat again and spread the meringue on the pies about ¼ inch thick.

  3. Return to the oven and bake until golden brown.

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 + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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
Cook down to form the soft, flavourful body of the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that sets into the light, airy meringue topping.
Egg yolk
Thickens the filling as it heats and adds richness.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whites and sweetens the meringue, helping it stay stable.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, mellow flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake the meringue until golden brown. Meringue needs enough heat to set and brown fully; underbaked meringue stays soft and can weep, while overbaking makes it tough and sticky.

Swap the apple

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

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

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