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Dessert

Iced Apples

Baked apples filled with sugar, butter, and nutmeg, topped with a sweet milk icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon 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 ↓

Iced Apples

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.

Bake the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Pare and core the apples.

  3. Fill each apple with 1 teaspoon of sugar, a small piece of butter, and a dash of nutmeg.

  4. Bake the apples until nearly done.

Ice and finish

  1. In a bowl, mix sweet milk, powdered sugar, and lemon essence to make icing.

  2. Beat the icing briskly and frost the cooled apples.

  3. Return the frosted apples to the oven for 1 minute to brown slightly.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Hold their shape when baked and provide a tart flavor that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize slightly during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts into the apple.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the milk to form a smooth, sweet icing that sets as it cools.

The step that matters

Beat the icing briskly and frost the cooled apples. The apples must be cooled before frosting, or the icing will melt and run off. Brisk beating helps the powdered sugar dissolve fully so the icing spreads smoothly and sets to a glossy coat.

Swap the apple

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

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

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