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Dessert

Stewed Apples and Custard

Stewed apples simmered in a sugar‑water syrup with cloves and lemon rind, served with custard and garnished with blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Apples and Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and core the apples, leaving the stalks on if possible.

Stew the apples

  1. Boil the sugar and water for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the lemon rind and cloves to the syrup, then gently simmer the apples until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Do not let the apples break.

  3. Reduce the syrup by boiling quickly, then let it cool slightly before pouring it over the apples.

Serve

  1. Serve with ½ pint of thick custard poured around the apples.

  2. Garnish the apples with 12 blanched almonds cut into strips.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Hold their shape and become tender and sweet when gently stewed in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken as it reduces.
Custard
Adds a rich, creamy sauce that contrasts with the tart-sweet stewed fruit.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer the apples gently. A rolling boil breaks the apples apart before they are tender. Gentle simmering cooks the flesh through while keeping the fruit whole and intact.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, clove, sugar, 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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