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Dessert

Apple Tapioca

A baked dessert of apples filled with sugar and topped with cooked tapioca.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Tapioca

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 the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in cold water for 1 hour, then drain.

  2. Add boiling water and salt to the tapioca.

  3. Cook the tapioca in a double boiler until transparent.

Assemble and bake

  1. Core and peel the apples.

  2. Arrange the apples in a buttered pudding dish.

  3. Fill the cavities of the apples with sugar.

  4. Pour the cooked tapioca over the apples.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the apples are soft.

Serve

  1. Serve with sugar and cream or cream sauce.

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

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

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

Tapioca
Thickens as it cooks and turns transparent, forming a soft, jelly-like coating over the apples.
Sour apples
Provide the main body and tartness, softening in the oven to become tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and adds flavour inside their cavities as they bake.

The step that matters

Cook the tapioca until transparent. Tapioca starch must be fully gelatinised to thicken properly and lose its raw, chalky texture. Stopping early leaves a cloudy, grainy result, while the double boiler gently prevents scorching on the bottom.

“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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