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Dessert

Apple Float

Apple Float is a dessert of stewed apples in a sweet syrup, topped with custard and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Apple Float

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the apples

  1. Place the apples in a pot, cover with water, and stew until they are soft.

  2. Remove the apples and add sugar to the same water, then bring to a boil.

  3. Return the apples to the pot and stew until they are clear.

Set the syrup

  1. Slice the lemon into the syrup, add the dissolved gelatine, mix well, and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the syrup over the apples and let it cool until congealed.

Top and brown

  1. Whisk together the egg yolks, powdered sugar, and milk to make a custard, then spread over the apples when cold.

  2. Whip the egg whites with lemon flavoring, place on top of the custard, and brown in the oven.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the soft base that the set syrup is poured over.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it set with the gelatine.
Gelatine
Sets the syrup so it congeals over the apples.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a custard layer.
Egg whites
Whipped foam that forms the light top layer and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the syrup cool until congealed. The gelatine only sets as the syrup cools, so spreading the custard too early or before the syrup has firmed can cause layers to mix and the top to slide.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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