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Dessert

To Make Apple Cream

Apple Cream is a baked dessert of apples, raisins, wine, and stiffened egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,207 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

To Make Apple Cream

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples.

  2. Boil the apples with a little water, raisins, and lemon rind until soft.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Add the wine.

Make the topping

  1. Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff.

Bake

  1. Spread the egg mixture over the apple mixture.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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 + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk and moisture of the base, softening into a tender purée when boiled.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that sets in the oven, forming the light topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the apple base.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the apple mixture.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks; underbeaten whites will deflate and fail to set into a light topping. Adding sugar gradually helps stabilise the foam.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Blackberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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