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Apple Meringue

A meringue flavored with grated apples and vanilla, served over sliced oranges or gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Apple Meringue

Why it works: Vanilla and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,371 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg white with the granulated sugar for 20 minutes.

  2. Grate the apples slowly into the mixture and beat for an additional 10 minutes.

  3. Add vanilla extract to taste.

  4. Serve the meringue on sliced oranges or gelatin.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg white
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringue its airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Stabilizes the whipped egg white foam and adds sweetness.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity flavor to the meringue.

The step that matters

Grating the apples into the foam. Adding wet ingredients to a whipped egg white foam can deflate it. Adding the apples slowly and beating only until combined helps keep the air trapped in the meringue.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla, orange. 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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