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Dessert

Apples a LA Cremone

Apples à la Cremone is a dessert of apples simmered with sugar, lemon peel, and cider, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Apples a LA Cremone

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose clear-looking apples and cut them into brick-shaped pieces.

  2. Strew the apples with sugar and lemon peel, then cover in a bowl overnight.

Cook

  1. The next day, place the apples in a small preserving pan with sugar and cider.

  2. Simmer gently until the apples become clear.

  3. Remove the apples piece by piece.

Arrange and serve

  1. Once cold, arrange the apples on a small oval dish, placing lemon peel on top.

  2. Pour the syrup into the middle.

  3. Serve with cream.

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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
Hold their shape while turning clear and tender during the slow simmer.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and, cooked into syrup, helps them turn clear and glossy.
Strong cider
Adds acidity and fruity aroma to the syrup as it simmers with the apples.
Lemon peel
Adds aromatic citrus oils that flavour the apples and syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the apples become clear. Boiling hard can break the apple pieces apart and cloud the syrup. A gentle simmer lets the sugar syrup slowly penetrate the fruit, so it turns translucent while keeping its shape.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cider, 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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