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Dessert

Apple Fakcie

Stuffed apples filled with a mixture of fruit, nuts, sherry, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Apple Fakcie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Cut off the tops of the apples and remove the insides with a sharp knife or spoon.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix together the citron, raisins, minced apple, cherries, pecans, sherry, nutmeg, sugar, and ¾ of the whipped cream.

  2. Fill the apple shells with the mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve each apple with 1 teaspoon of the remaining whipped cream on top.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Pecans + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the hollow shells that hold the filling and give the dish its structure.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the filling and topping.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Sherry
Adds a fruity, aromatic depth to the filling.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, cream, sherry, nutmeg, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, cream, sherry, nutmeg, sugar. 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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