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Dessert

Apples, a LA Portuguaise

A baked apple pie with marmalade, custard, jam, and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Apples, a LA Portuguaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pie

  1. Prepare the marmalade with the apples and place it in a baked oval pie crust.

  2. Leave a hollow in the center of the marmalade and fill it with pastry custard.

  3. Spread apricot jam over the entire surface.

Make and bake the meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites until firm, then mix in the sifted sugar to create meringue.

  2. Cover the dome of apples with a smooth layer of meringue.

  3. Use a paper cornet to create a design on the meringue.

  4. Dust with sifted sugar and bake until the meringue is light fawn in color.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, fill the inner part of the design with alternating layers of red currant jelly, apple jelly, and greengage jam.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + red curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Apple + red curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  5. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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
Form the bulk of the filling, providing body and fruity flavor under the meringue.
Egg whites
Whipped into meringue, they create a light, airy topping that sets when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it whip into a stable, glossy foam that browns in the oven.
Marmalade
Adds concentrated fruit flavor and a bittersweet acidity to the apple layer.
Pastry custard
Provides a rich, creamy centre that contrasts with the firm fruit layer.

The step that matters

Baking the meringue. Meringue can weep, collapse or brown unevenly if the whites are under-whipped or the sugar is not fully incorporated. Whip until firm and bake only until light fawn, so the topping stays set and tender rather than dry or syrupy.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, sugar, apricot):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, sugar, apricot. 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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