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Dessert

Apple Triflx

A layered dessert of apples, lemon, milk, cream, eggs, and whipped cream with raisin wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Apple Triflx

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apple base

  1. Pulp the apples through a sieve to create a thick layer at the bottom of your dish.

  2. Mix the grated lemon rind with the apples and sweeten to taste with sugar.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, cream, and egg yolk; scald over medium heat while stirring until just below boiling.

  2. Add more sugar to the milk mixture and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, pour the mixture over the apples.

Make the whip and assemble

  1. For the whip, beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in cream, powdered sugar, lemon peel, and raisin wine.

  2. Spread the whip over the cooled apple layer.

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 + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the thick fruit layer at the base and provide the main flavour.
Egg yolk
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, rich custard as it gently heats.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they give the topping its light, airy structure.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard and whip a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and custard and balances the tartness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Scalding the milk mixture. Heating the egg yolk mixture over medium heat while stirring must stop just below boiling. Overheating can curdle the egg yolk, leaving the custard grainy instead of smooth and thick.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Blackberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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