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Dessert

Apple Mebingue

A baked dessert of preserved apples topped with stiffened egg white froth and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and apple 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 ↓

Apple Mebingue

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.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the water down to 1½ cups.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Slowly add the rich syrup to the egg whites while stirring continuously.

  3. If the mixture is not stiff, add a little sifted white sugar.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the preserved apples in a dish, leaving space for the froth.

  2. Smoothly spread the froth over the apples and dust with fine white sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes until light yellow.

  4. Let it cool before serving.

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. Sugar + appletop 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. Egg + appletop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

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

Sugar and apple 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

White sugar
Sweetens the dish and, cooked into a syrup, gives the froth its body and stability.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the light, airy topping structure.
Preserved apples
Form the fruit base beneath the froth, adding moisture and tartness.

The step that matters

Adding the syrup to the egg whites. The syrup must be added slowly while stirring so the hot liquid does not collapse the whipped foam. If the mixture stays loose, the froth will not hold its shape in the oven.

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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