Name: Dried Apple Custard Pie
Ingredients: 4 cups stewed apples; 4 large eggs; 2 cups sweet milk; ½ pound sugar; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 1 nutmeg, grated; 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon 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 ↓

Dried Apple Custard Pie

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 filling

Stew the apples in water until perfectly done.
Strain and sweeten the apples to taste.
Prepare a mixture with the apples, eggs, milk, sugar, melted butter, nutmeg, and lemon juice.
Beat the mixture well.

Bake

Pour the mixture over the apples in the pastry crust.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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.

Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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 the filling structure and body.
Sweet milk: Forms the custard base, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly at the edges.
Stewed apples: Provide the main fruit flavour and bulk of the filling.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother, tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as they heat, but overbaking makes the custard curdle and weep, so bake only until the centre is just set.

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangefits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, butter, nutmeg, lemon. 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.