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Dessert

Baked Apples, No. I

A baked apple dessert served with powdered sugar and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Apples, No. I

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut out the blossom ends of the apples and wash them without peeling.

  3. Place the apples in a large pudding dish and pour in the water.

Bake and cool

  1. Cover the dish with another dish or a pan and bake until the apples are tender.

  2. Remove the apples from the oven.

  3. Pour the juice over the apples while hot.

  4. Repeat pouring the juice as the apples cool.

  5. Chill the apples on ice.

Serve

  1. Transfer the apples to a glass dish for serving, pouring the juice over them again.

  2. Serve with powdered sugar and cream.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Sweet apples
Hold their shape while softening and provide the main body and sweetness of the dish.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness at serving, dissolving slightly into the warm juices on the apples.
Cream
Adds richness and fat that softens the tart and sweet flavors of the baked apples.

The step that matters

Bake until tender. Apples need enough time in the oven for the starches and cell walls to soften fully; underbaked apples stay firm and grainy, while the juice pours over them to keep them moist.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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