Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Apple Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel, core, and quarter the apples.
Stew the apples with the grated lemon peel in a small amount of water until tender.
Mash the stewed apples until smooth, yielding about 1½ cups.
Mix the mashed apples with ½ cup of sugar and let cool.
Make the custard
Beat the eggs until light and stir them into 1 quart of milk alternately with the cooled apple mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into cups or a deep dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.
Serve cold, garnished with grated nutmeg.
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.
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and creamy richness of the custard.
- Apples
- Supply the main fruit flavor and body once stewed and mashed smooth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
The step that matters
Folding the apples into the eggs and milk. Eggs can curdle or scramble if added to hot mixtures, so the apple mixture must be cooled first. Adding it alternately with the beaten eggs and milk blends the custard smoothly and keeps it from setting unevenly during baking.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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