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Dessert

Fancy Baked Apples

Baked apples served with a fruit syrup and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fancy Baked Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Peel and core the apples, then place them in a baking dish.

  3. Pour 1-2 cups of water over the apples.

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, raisins, cherries, pineapple, almonds, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Simmer the syrup for 1-2 hours until the sugar is dissolved.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the apples until tender.

  2. Once the apples are done, place them in small glass dishes.

  3. Fill the apples with the cooked syrup mixture and serve with whipped cream.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Apple + pineappletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Soften into tender fruit that holds its shape while baking and absorbs the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps thicken it as it dissolves and reduces.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer the syrup until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar must fully dissolve before the syrup is used, or it stays grainy. The record gives a range of 1-2 hours, which is long for dissolving sugar, so the cook should check that the sugar has dissolved completely rather than rely on the time alone.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, syrup, raisin, pineapple, almond, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, syrup, raisin, pineapple, almond, cream. 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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