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Dessert

Apple Snow

Apple Snow is a dessert of stewed apples, whipped cream, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Snow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apple base

  1. Stew the sliced apples with grated lemon rind until soft, then rub through a sieve.

  2. Add lemon juice to the apple mixture.

Make the snow and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the apple mixture.

  2. Make a custard with the egg yolks and serve it alongside the apple mixture.

  3. Alternatively, use 2 eggs and 1 pint of whipped cream to mix with the apples.

  4. Top with another ½ pint of whipped cream and garnish with colored jelly.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Apple and sugar 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 main body and fruity flavor, and their pectin helps the purée hold its shape.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the mixture light and foamy.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the custard served alongside the apple mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tart apples and lemon.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness, richness and a creamy moisture to the dish.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites into the apple mixture. Stiff egg white foam holds air that makes the dish light. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the foam and leaves the snow dense.

Swap the apple

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

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

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