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Apple Filling for Layer Cake

A sweet apple filling for layer cakes made with grated apples, lemon, egg, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Filling for Layer Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the apples and set aside.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated apples, lemon juice and rind, egg, sugar, and butter.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly over low heat until thickened.

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

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

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide bulk and fruity flavour, with moisture that softens as they cook.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the filling.
Egg
Thickens the filling as its proteins set during gentle cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps give it a smooth, spreadable body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy texture.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture slowly over low heat until thickened. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat can curdle the egg and leave lumps. Gentle, steady cooking lets the mixture thicken evenly into a smooth filling.

Swap the apple

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

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

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