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Dessert

Apple Snow with Custard Sauce

Apple Snow with Custard Sauce is a dessert of stewed apples puréed and folded with beaten egg whites, topped with a thickened custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Snow with Custard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Core and quarter the apples without peeling them.

  2. Stew the apples until tender.

  3. Rub the stewed apples through a fine sieve.

Make the snow

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the powdered sugar to the egg whites and beat again.

  3. Mix in the apple puree and beat until fluffy.

  4. Pile the mixture lightly in a dish.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the milk, egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar in a saucepan set over boiling water.

  2. Cook the custard mixture until thickened.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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 whites
Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the snow its light, foamy structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Apples
Stewed and sieved to a puree, they add body, moisture and fruity tartness.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites, adding sweetness and helping stabilise the foam.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and moisture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard by swelling in the hot milk when heated.

The step that matters

Cook the custard mixture until thickened. Heat must be gentle, over simmering rather than boiling water. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, and the custard only thickens fully once the starch has gelatinised, so stop when it coats a spoon.

Swap the apple

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

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

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