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Apricot Meringue Pie

A pie filled with apricots and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Apricot Meringue Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Mix the chopped apricots with ½ cup sugar and the beaten egg yolk.

Bake the filling

  1. Fill the pie crust with the apricot mixture and bake until set.

  2. Remove from the oven and let it stand for 2-3 minutes.

Top with meringue

  1. Beat the egg white until stiff, then gradually add 2 teaspoons sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie and return it to the oven until golden brown.

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. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,712 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit flavor, moisture and tartness that form the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white in the meringue.
Egg yolk
Thickens the apricot filling as it bakes and sets.
Egg white
Whips into a foam that gives the meringue its volume and light texture.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar to the egg white. Adding sugar gradually, after the egg white starts to foam, lets it dissolve fully and builds a stable, glossy meringue that holds its peaks and browns evenly rather than weeping or collapsing.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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