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Apples, a LA Portuguaise

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Apples, a LA Portuguaise

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the marmalade with the apples and place it in a baked oval pie crust.

  2. Leave a hollow in the center of the marmalade and fill it with pastry custard.

  3. Cover the entire dome of apples with orange marmalade.

  4. Whip the egg whites until firm, then mix in the sugar to create meringue.

  5. Spread the meringue over the apples, smoothing it out.

  6. Use a paper cornet to create a design on the meringue.

  7. Sprinkle sifted sugar on top and bake until light fawn color.

  8. Before serving, fill the hollow with alternating layers of red-currant jelly, apple jelly, and greengage or apricot jam.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Orange + apricottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Currant + apricottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, orange, egg, sugar, apricot):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, orange, egg, sugar, apricot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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