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Dessert

Apple-cakes, German Fashion

A baked apple cake made with apples, butter, flour, milk, eggs, sugar, orange zest, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple-cakes, German Fashion

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Cut the apples into quarters, peel, and mince them.

  2. Heat the apples with the melted butter in a saucepan until very hot.

  3. Remove the apples from heat.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour with the cold milk and eggs.

  2. Whip the mixture until smooth.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Add sugar, orange zest, and salt to the sifted mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a flat saucepan with butter.

  2. Mix the apples into the saucepan.

  3. Pour the batter over the apples.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 40 minutes.

  5. Once set and slightly dry, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  6. After 10 minutes, cut into squares and serve on a folded napkin.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  3. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Rennet apples
Provide the fruit flavor and moisture that soften and perfume the cake.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the cake a tender crumb and buttery flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its firm body.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour into a smooth batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to gentle browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Pass the batter through a sieve. Sieving removes lumps of flour and bits of egg, so the batter bakes into a smooth, even texture rather than a grainy one.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar. 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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