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Dessert

Apple Cream

A gelatin-based apple dessert with whipped cream and carmine coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of water.

  2. Peel, core, and chop the apples, then place them in a clean pan.

  3. Add the remaining water, lemon rind, and strained lemon juice to the pan.

Make the apple cream

  1. Cook until the apples are tender, then pass the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Add the melted gelatine to the apple mixture.

  3. Color half of the mixture with carmine.

Set and serve

  1. Layer the mixtures in an oiled border mold, filling the center with whipped 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

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 main body and flavor of the cream once cooked and sieved.
Gelatine
Sets the apple mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Lemons
Add acidity and fragrance that brighten the sweet apple flavor.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, soft texture to the centre of the dish.

The step that matters

Passing the cooked apples through a sieve. Cooked apples must be smooth and free of lumps or skin so the cream sets evenly and has a fine texture. Sieving while the apples are still hot is easier and gives a silkier result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, 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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