Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Mould

A moulded apple dessert made by cooking apples with sugar, isinglass, lemon, rum, and setting in a greased mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and rum work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Apple Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple mixture

  1. In a skillet, combine the chopped apples and sugar.

  2. Add isinglass, lemon rind, lemon juice, and rum.

  3. Boil until it reaches a rich jam consistency.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Mould and set

  1. Grease a mould with salad oil or melted butter.

  2. Press the apple mixture into the mould and smooth the top.

  3. Chill in a cold place or on ice until firm.

  4. Carefully turn out and serve with custard.

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 + rumtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 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

Cooking apples
Provide the bulk and pectin that give the mould its body and fruity flavour.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, by boiling, thickens it into a jam-like consistency.
Isinglass
A gelatine-like setting agent that firms the apple mixture as it chills.
Rum
Adds aroma and warmth that complements the lemon and apple.

The step that matters

Boil until a rich jam consistency. Boiling concentrates the sugar and apple pectin so the mixture sets firmly when chilled. Undercooked mixture stays soft and will not hold its shape when turned out, while overcooking makes it stiff and dense.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Bananafits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, rum, butter. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes