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Apple Meringue

A baked apple custard topped with meringue in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Apple Meringue

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Meringue

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.

Make the filling

  1. Stew the apples and grated lemon rind in a little water with the sugar.

  2. Add the milk and the cornflour mixed smooth in a little of the milk.

  3. Add the butter and beaten egg yolks.

  4. Stir over the heat for a few minutes.

Bake the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with pastry and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Top with meringue and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and flavoring.

  3. Pile the meringue on top of the pudding.

  4. Return to the oven.

  5. Bake until the meringue is a delicate brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main fruit body and tart flavour of the pie filling.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets into a smooth custard.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the filling, while whites whipped into meringue give the topping its structure.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the filling and adds richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother texture in the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, dissolved into the egg whites, stabilises the meringue and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Whipping and topping the meringue. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff and the meringue spread to the edges of the filling so it seals and holds its peaks. Under-whipped whites collapse and weep, while overbaking can make the meringue tough.

Swap the apple

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

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

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