Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Iced Apples, or Apple Hedgehog
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Stew the apples
Peel and core the apples without dividing them, then stew them gently in a lined saucepan with 1 lb sugar and 1 pint water until tender.
Carefully lift the stewed apples onto a dish.
Make the marmalade
Peel, core, and slice the remaining apples thinly, then add them to the syrup with the lemon peel and boil gently until reduced to a marmalade, stirring to prevent burning.
Build and decorate
Cover the bottom of a dish with some marmalade, then layer the stewed apples, filling the cavities with marmalade.
Repeat with another layer of apples and fill the cavities with marmalade, forming an oval shape.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, mix in the pounded sugar, and cover the apples smoothly with the icing.
Blanch and cut each almond into 4 or 5 strips, placing them at equal distances over the icing.
Sprinkle with a little rough pounded sugar and place the dish in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) to color the almonds and warm the apples through.
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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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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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 + almondtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,025 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Boiling apples
- Hold their shape when stewed and provide the body of the dessert.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, reduced with the apples, sets the marmalade.
- Eggs
- Whites whipped to stiff peaks form the smooth icing that covers the apples.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic citrus flavour to the marmalade.
The step that matters
Reducing the marmalade. Boiling gently while stirring keeps the apples from sticking and scorching, and cooking until reduced concentrates the pectin and sugar so the marmalade sets thick enough to fill the cavities without running.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, almond. 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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