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Dessert

Apple Sitow

Apple Sitow is a dessert of stewed apples topped with custard and whipped egg whites.

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 Sitow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare, core, and slice the apples.

  2. Stew the apples in a little water until soft enough to press through a colander.

  3. Sweeten the apples to taste and transfer to a deep glass dish.

  4. Let the apples cool.

Make the custard

  1. Prepare a soft custard by combining milk, egg yolks, and sugar; flavor with lemon or orange.

  2. Pour the custard over the cooled apples.

Top and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth with powdered sugar.

  2. Heap the whipped egg whites lightly over the custard.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 fruit base, softened by stewing and pressed into a smooth layer.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a soft custard that sets as it cools.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff froth that forms the light, airy topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and custard, balancing the tartness of the fruit.

The step that matters

Let the apples cool before pouring the custard. Pouring warm custard over the fruit can thin the custard and let it curdle or separate, so the apples should be fully cooled first.

Swap the apple

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

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

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