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Dessert

Apple-custard Pee

A pie filled with stewed apple custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple-custard Pee

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Stew and strain enough tart apples to make 2 cups of sauce.

  2. Sweeten the sauce well and season with nutmeg or mace.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs until light, then pour in the hot milk mixed with baking soda.

  2. Let the sauce and custard cool, then quickly beat them together.

  3. Line a pie dish with the crust and brush it with egg white.

Bake

  1. Fill the crust with the apple-custard mixture and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set.

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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Tart apples
Provide the main fruit flavour and a tangy, moist body to the filling.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the filling its custard structure.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the eggs into a smooth custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the tart apples.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apple sauce, altering its texture and browning slightly.

The step that matters

Cool the sauce and custard before combining. Adding hot custard to eggs or hot sauce can scramble the eggs or thin the filling. Cooling both first and beating quickly keeps the mixture smooth so it sets evenly in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

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

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