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Dessert

Apple Float

A dessert of cooked tart apples mixed with egg whites, sweetened, and served cold with ice, cream, and candied garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Float

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Cut tart apples into small pieces, wash them, and remove any decayed spots.

  2. Cover the apples with cold water and cook until done.

  3. Press the cooked apples through a colander to remove cores and peelings.

Make the float

  1. For every pint of strained apples, sweeten to taste and add the well-beaten whites of 3 eggs.

  2. Beat the mixture until cold and flavor with nutmeg.

  3. Serve with crushed ice and cream.

Make the quick dessert and serve

  1. For a quick dessert, mix ½ pint of stiffly whipped cream with 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar, ½ cup of chopped nut meats, and a little minced candied orange peel.

  2. Line slender, tall sherbet glasses with lady-fingers or bits of sponge cake.

  3. Garnish with a few candied cherries and serve as cold as possible.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Cooked and strained to form the smooth, flavorful base of the float.
Egg whites
Beaten into the apple purée to add airy volume and a light, fluffy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy texture to the dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple base to balance its tartness.
Lady-fingers or sponge cake
Provides a soft, absorbent layer that lines the glasses and soaks up flavor.

The step that matters

Beat the apple and egg white mixture until cold. Beating raw egg whites into warm apple purée can deflate and thin the foam; chilling the mixture while beating helps it hold its volume and stay light and stable.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, nutmeg, cream, meat, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, nutmeg, cream, meat, orange. 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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