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Dessert

Pommes Meringuees a LA Creme

Whole cored apples poached in a spiced sugar syrup, covered in meringue, baked, and filled with sweetened whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,027 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Poach the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples carefully.

  2. In a copper saucepan, combine loaf sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon juice; reduce to a syrup.

  3. Skim and strain the syrup into a sauté pan.

  4. Arrange the apples in the syrup, cover with buttered paper, and cook in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) until tender.

  5. Carefully strain the apples and place them on a buttered baking sheet.

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then mix in 2 oz of castor sugar.

  2. Transfer the meringue mixture to a piping bag and cover each apple completely with it.

  3. Dust with sugar and bake in a cool oven (300°F/150°C) until lightly browned.

Fill and serve

  1. Once cooled, fill the center of each apple with whipped cream sweetened with 2 teaspoons of castor sugar.

  2. Serve on small heaps of whipped cream in a cold dish, topped with a crystallized cherry and slices of angelica.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + angelicatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together189 recipes

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

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,615 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cinnamon + angelicatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour cooking apples
Hold their shape while poaching and turn tender, providing the main structure of the dessert.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the poaching syrup and helps the apples absorb flavor as they cook.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the syrup and balances the sweetness.
Egg whites
Whisked into stiff foam that sets in the oven to form the light meringue topping.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Cream
Whipped to add richness and moisture to the filling in the centre of each apple.

The step that matters

Covering each apple completely with meringue. Apples should be well drained first, since surface moisture makes meringue weep. Sealing every part of the apple in stiff, well-whisked foam helps it hold its shape and brown evenly in the cool oven.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  3. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cinnamon, clove, cream, egg, angelica. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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