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Dessert

Apple Omelette

A baked dessert of stewed apples topped with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apple Omelette

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Stew and pulp the apples, sweetening to taste, and stir in 1 oz of butter.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool.

Assemble

  1. Butter a pie dish thickly on the bottom and sides.

  2. Cover the dish with finely grated bread crumbs.

  3. Add the apple mixture to the dish.

  4. Cover with ½ inch of bread crumbs.

  5. Dissolve the remaining 2 oz of butter.

  6. Pour the melted butter over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Carefully turn the bake out onto a serving plate.

  3. Sift white sugar over it before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 moist, tart-sweet fruit base that softens into the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form the dry layers that soak up apple juices and crisp as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the crumbs brown and the top turn golden.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the apples and adds a little browning at the surface.

The step that matters

Carefully turn the bake out onto a serving plate.. The crumb layers are soft and moist after baking, so they can break or slump if turned too quickly. Letting it settle briefly and using a steady, confident motion helps the cake hold its shape.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applethe original
  4. Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, sugar. 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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