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Dessert

Apple Snowballs

Apple Snowballs are boiled or steamed apple slices encased in suet crust pastry with sugar and optional cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and apple 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 ↓

Apple Snowballs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Prepare the suet crust pastry as directed.

  3. Reserve a portion of the pastry for the lid and roll out the remainder to line a greased basin.

Fill and seal

  1. Layer half of the apple slices in the basin, sprinkle with sugar, and add cloves.

  2. Top with the remaining apple slices and pour in the cold water.

  3. Roll out the reserved pastry for the lid, moisten the edges, and seal it to the basin.

  4. Cover with a floured cloth if boiling, or use two layers of greased paper if steaming.

Cook

  1. Cook for 2 to 3 hours.

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. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the fruit filling that softens and becomes tender during the long cooking.
Suet crust pastry
Forms the sealed case that encloses the apples and holds in steam while cooking.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apple juices become a syrup in the basin.
Cold water
Adds moisture to the filling so the apples steam and the pastry stays moist.

The step that matters

Sealing the lid to the basin. If the edges are not moistened and pressed firmly, steam and liquid can escape or leak during the long cooking, drying the filling and leaving the pastry soggy or uneven.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, apple):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, apple. 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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