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Dessert

Apple Meringues

A baked dessert of sliced apples topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the apple base

  1. Peel, core, and cut the apples into thin slices.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the sugar to the melted butter, then add lemon peel for flavor.

  3. Add the apples and simmer until tender.

  4. Transfer the apples to a serving dish.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then gradually add the powdered sugar and continue beating.

  2. Spread the meringue over the apples evenly and sprinkle sifted sugar on top.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the meringue rises.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 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
Soften during simmering to form the fruit base under the meringue.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the sugar and lemon flavor into the apples.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps create a glossy, tender texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they form the airy meringue that rises in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites, stabilizing the meringue and giving it a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until frothy before adding sugar. Egg whites must be whipped to a stable foam before the powdered sugar is added gradually. Under-whipped or greasy whites will not trap air, so the meringue will not rise properly in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

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

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