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Apple Meringue Pie

A pie of stewed apples topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 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.

Make the apple filling

  1. Stew the cooking apples until soft.

  2. Mash the stewed apples until smooth.

  3. Season the mashed apples with nutmeg.

  4. Pour the apple mixture into a pie dish.

  5. Bake the pie without a top crust at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar to the egg whites while continuing to beat until glossy.

  3. Spread the meringue over the baked apple filling.

  4. Return the pie to the oven to slightly brown.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

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

Cooking apples
Break down into a soft, smooth filling that forms the base of the pie.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that sets into a light, airy meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Stabilises the whipped egg whites and gives the meringue a glossy, sweet finish.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites must be whipped to a stable foam before sugar is added. Under-whipped or greasy whites will not hold their shape and the meringue may weep or collapse in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

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

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