Why it works: Sugar and condensed milk work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Apple Snow
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Cook the apples
Peel, core, and quarter the apples.
Boil them in just enough water to prevent burning until tender, or bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Remove the core and peel after cooking.
If boiling, add the lemon rind with the apples.
If baking, add the lemon juice after removing the pulp from the apples.
Beat the apple pulp well and set aside to cool.
Make the apple snow
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Mix the cooled apple pulp and beaten egg whites together with a whisk, adding castor sugar to taste.
The mixture should be thick and frothy.
Pile it into a glass or dish and decorate with crystallized cherries.
Make the custard and serve
Mix the egg yolks with some condensed milk and flavor with lemon.
Serve it with or pour it around the apple snow.
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 + condensed milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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
- Cooked to a soft pulp, they form the light body of the snow.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the snow its light, foamy texture.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the apple pulp and adds body to the froth.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard, adding richness and helping it thicken when gently combined.
- Condensed milk
- Sweetens and thickens the custard, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites only trap air when fully whipped and dry of grease. Under-beaten whites collapse into the pulp, while the cooled pulp must be combined gently so the foam is not deflated.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, condensed milk, lemon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, condensed milk, lemon, egg. 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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