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Dessert

Baked Apple Custard

A baked custard made with apples, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Baked Apple Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Core and slice the apples, then arrange them in a greased baking dish.

  3. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon.

  4. Pour the mixture over the apples in the baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard is set and lightly browned.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and contributes to light browning on the surface.
Apples
Provide tender fruit and moisture that soften and flavor the baked dish.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Eggs thicken the custard as they heat, but overbaking causes proteins to tighten and squeeze out liquid, leaving the custard grainy or watery. Remove it once the centre is just set and still slightly wobbly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon. 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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