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Dessert

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

A layered apple dessert with apricot marmalade, sugar, eggs, and blanched almonds, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

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. Stew the apples in a light syrup made with ½ pint of water and 6 ounces of sugar until tender.

  2. Drain the apples and arrange them in a dish, filling the spaces with apricot marmalade in layers.

  3. Stew 3 to 5 pounds of apples down into a smooth marmalade and fill all gaps between the apples.

Top and bake

  1. Beat 2 eggs to a solid froth and mix with 2 heaped tablespoons of sugar, then spread over the dish.

  2. Sift fine sugar on top and place blanched almond spikes over the surface.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the almonds are browned and the apples are heated through.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Apples
Hold their shape when stewed and form the bulk of the dish.
Eggs
Whipped to a froth, they set into a light topping that holds the almonds.
Apricot marmalade
Fills the gaps between the apples and adds fruity sweetness and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and the egg topping and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs to a solid froth. Egg foam sets in the oven and gives the topping its lift. If the eggs are under-whipped or deflated when spread, the topping stays dense and heavy.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, apricot, 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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