Why it works: Sugar and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Custards, O Edams Amd Desserts
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix in ¾ cup sugar until light.
Fill a large glass fruit dish with the mixture.
Whip the egg whites until stiff and mix in 3 tablespoons sugar.
Spread the whipped egg whites on top of the custard.
Serve with apples or any tart fruit.
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.
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Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + appletop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,461 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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