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Dessert

Apple Float

A dessert of stewed apples folded into stiffened egg whites, sweetened with powdered sugar and lemon, topped with nutmeg.

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

Prepare the apple puree

  1. Stew the apples until soft, then pass them through a sieve.

Make the float

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually stir in the powdered sugar.

  2. Gently fold the apple puree into the egg mixture.

  3. Add lemon juice and mix well.

Serve

  1. Grate nutmeg generously over the top before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Provide the main body, sweetness and fruity flavor of the puree.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the float its light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps stabilize the foam.

The step that matters

Gently fold the apple puree into the egg mixture. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped egg whites. Stirring vigorously would deflate the foam, leaving the float dense and heavy instead of light.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon, 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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