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Dessert

Apple Tapioca

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Apple Tapioca

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the tapioca overnight.

  2. Peel the apples.

  3. Core the apples.

  4. Fill the apple centers with raisins.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add water and sugar to the soaked tapioca.

  2. Pour the tapioca mixture over the apples.

  3. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

  4. Bake until the apples are tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 the sugared liquid into a glossy, set sauce around the apples as it bakes.
Apples
Provide the main body and soft, tender fruit that the tapioca mixture surrounds.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tart apple flavor.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture inside the apple centers.

The step that matters

Bake until the apples are tender. Tapioca softens and thickens only as it heats fully, and the apples must be cooked through so the fruit and sauce finish together. Pulling the dish early can leave firm apples and a thin, underset sauce.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, cinnamon. 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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