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Dessert

Apple Cheesecakes

A baked apple dessert with cake crumbs, butter, lemon, sugar, eggs, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Cheesecakes

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.

Make the filling

  1. Combine apples, butter, sugar, and lemon juice in a pan, cover, and cook until soft.

  2. Mash the cooked apples into a smooth pulp and let cool.

  3. Mix in cake crumbs and egg yolk, then fold in the beaten egg white.

Bake

  1. Line deep patty tins with pastry, fill with the apple mixture, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 20 minutes.

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
Provide the bulk of the filling and its tender, fruity body once cooked down.
Egg
Sets the filling as it bakes and gives it a light, custard-like structure.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the filling while setting.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the apples cook to a soft pulp.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg white. Folding, rather than stirring, keeps the air in the beaten egg white so the filling stays light. Overmixing knocks out that air and can leave the filling dense.

Swap the apple

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

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

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