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Dessert

Apple Island

A dessert of stewed apples folded with stiff egg whites, flavored with lemon, served with custard or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Island

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Stew enough apples to make 4 cups when done, using as little water as possible.

  2. Strain the stewed apples through a sieve.

  3. Sweeten and flavor the strained apples with grated lemon.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Slowly stir the beaten egg whites into the apple mixture just before serving.

  3. Serve with rich custard or imperial 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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,089 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 main body, moisture and fruity flavor of the dessert.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the apple purée into a airy, fluffy texture.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg whites. Fold the whites in gently and only just before serving. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, and the dessert loses its lightness and begins to weep as it sits.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, egg, 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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