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Dessert

Apple and Peach Meringue Pie

A pie filled with stewed apples or peaches topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple and Peach Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the apples or peaches and sweeten to taste.

  2. Mash the stewed fruit until smooth and season with nutmeg.

  3. Fill the pie crusts with the fruit mixture.

  4. Bake the pies at 350°F (175°C) until just done.

Make and add the meringue

  1. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth, then sweeten the meringue with powdered sugar.

  2. Flavor the meringue with rose‑water or vanilla and beat until it stands alone.

  3. Spread the meringue on the pies, ½ to 1 inch thick.

  4. Return the pies to the oven until the meringue is well set.

  5. Serve cold.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Apple + rosetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together235 recipes

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

Nutmeg and egg 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 or peaches
Provide the main fruit filling, whose sweetness and tartness shape the pie's flavor.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that sets in the oven to form the light, stable meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, sweetening and stabilizing the meringue.
Sugar
Sweetens the stewed fruit and helps the filling taste balanced.

The step that matters

Beating the meringue until it stands alone. Whites must be whipped to a stiff, glossy foam before the sugar is fully incorporated. Under-beaten meringue weeps and slumps on the pie, while over-beaten meringue turns grainy and dry.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

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