Skip to main content
Dessert

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

A dessert of stewed apples layered with marmalade and frothy egg icing, topped with blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Stew the apples in a light syrup made with water and sugar until tender.

  2. Drain the apples and arrange them in a dish, filling the spaces with marmalade.

  3. Cover the apples with more marmalade.

Ice and bake

  1. Prepare the icing by beating the eggs to a solid froth and mixing with sugar.

  2. Spread the icing evenly over the dish and dust with fine sugar.

  3. Stick blanched almond spikes over the surface.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the almonds are browned and the apples are heated through.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

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
Provide the tender fruit base that softens during stewing and heats through in the oven.
Eggs
Beaten to a solid froth, they form the light icing that sets over the dish when baked.
Apricot marmalade
Fills the gaps and coats the apples, adding sweetness and a glossy, fruity layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and icing, and helps the beaten eggs hold their structure.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs to a solid froth. Egg whites hold air only when beaten fully, and that foam sets into the icing as it bakes. Underbeaten eggs make a thin topping that sinks into the marmalade.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, apricot, 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.

You might also like

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