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Dessert

Baked Apples

A baked apple dessert with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, cloves, and a syrup, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Baked Apples

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Wash the apples and core them.

  3. Fill each cored apple with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and a clove.

  4. Place the apples in a deep dish and pour water into the dish.

  5. Sprinkle sugar on top of each apple.

Bake and glaze

  1. Bake until the apples are tender and slightly broken.

  2. Carefully transfer the apples to a serving dish.

  3. Pour the syrup over the apples.

  4. Glaze the apples with beaten egg whites and powdered sugar.

  5. Return the glazed apples to the oven for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with whipped cream.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main body and tender flesh that softens and holds its shape when baked.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and caramelizes into a syrup in the baking dish.
Egg whites
Form a glaze that sets and browns lightly in the oven, giving a glossy finish.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the beaten egg whites to sweeten and help the glaze set smooth.

The step that matters

Bake until the apples are tender and slightly broken. Underbaked apples stay firm and starchy, while overbaked ones collapse. Checking for tenderness with a knife gives a soft result that still holds its shape.

Swap the apple

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

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

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