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Dessert

Grated Apple Pie

A pie made with grated apples, raisins, currants, almonds, cinnamon, lemon peel, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Grated Apple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a pie plate with rich puff pastry.

  3. In a bowl, mix grated apples with egg yolks and sugar.

  4. Add raisins, currants, pounded almonds, cinnamon, and lemon peel.

  5. Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust; do not add a top crust.

Bake and top

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

  2. Meanwhile, beat egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue over the baked pie and return to the oven until browned.

  4. Serve cold.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and its fresh, tart flavor.
Egg yolks
Bind the apple mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that forms a light, browned topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the apples.
Powdered sugar
Stabilizes and sweetens the whipped egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the powdered sugar gradually. Egg whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks; adding sugar gradually keeps the foam stable, so the meringue stays glossy and does not weep or collapse in the oven.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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