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Dessert

Apple Meringue Pie

A pie of stewed apples topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Stew the pie apples and sweeten to taste.

  2. Beat the apples smooth and season with nutmeg.

  3. Line a pie dish with the crust and fill it with the apple mixture.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the crust is golden.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Make a meringue by beating the egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.

  3. If desired, flavor the meringue with rose water or vanilla.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pie and return it to the oven until lightly browned.

  5. Serve cold.

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. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Apple + rosetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together235 recipes

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

Nutmeg and egg 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

Pie apples
Provide the main body of the filling, which softens and becomes smooth when stewed and beaten.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that sets when baked, forming the light, stable meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, stabilizing the foam and sweetening the meringue.
Pie crust
Holds the apple filling in the dish and forms the golden base of the pie.

The step that matters

Spreading and browning the meringue. Meringue made with whites and sugar can weep or collapse if under-beaten or over-baked, so beat to stiff peaks and watch closely for a light browning rather than a deep color.

Swap the apple

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

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

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