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Dessert

Apple Custard No. 2

A custard dessert made with apples simmered in lemon syrup, topped with a soft custard and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Custard No. 2

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

  1. Peel, halve, and core the apples.

  2. In a saucepan, combine water, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, and sugar to make a syrup.

  3. Heat the syrup until the sugar dissolves.

  4. Add the apples to the syrup and simmer until tender but not falling apart.

  5. Remove the apples and drain them thoroughly.

  6. Place the apples in a glass dish.

  7. Boil the syrup until thick.

  8. Pour the thick syrup over the apples.

Make the custard

  1. In another saucepan, heat milk with egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar until thickened.

  2. Let the custard cool and spread it over the apples.

Top and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Flavor the whipped egg whites with lemon.

  3. Pile the flavored egg whites on top of the custard.

  4. Brown lightly in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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

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

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

Sour apples
Provide the main body and tart flavor that balances the sweet syrup and custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard that sets as it cools.
Egg whites
Whip into a light foam that forms the browned topping.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding richness and softness.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and custard and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Simmer the apples until tender but not falling apart. Apples keep their shape only if they are cooked gently; overcooking breaks down the pectin and cell walls, so they turn mushy and lose their structure under the custard.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, milk, 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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