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Dessert

Meringue

A baked dish of peeled apples topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, quarter, and core the apples.

  2. Place them in a saucepan with water and stir occasionally until done.

  3. Mix in sugar and let cool.

  4. Arrange the apples in a mound on a serving dish.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and mix in powdered sugar.

  2. Spread two-thirds of the meringue over the apples and smooth it out.

  3. Use the remaining meringue to decorate the dish as desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Dust with sugar and bake in a 250°F (120°C) oven for 20-25 minutes.

  2. Serve warm in the dish it was baked in.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Apples
Provide the bulk and tart fruit flavor that the meringue sits on top of.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that sets when baked, forming the light meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, sweetening the meringue and helping it stay glossy.
Sugar
Sweetens the cooked apples and balances their tartness.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be whipped until they hold firm peaks so the meringue has enough air to stay light and set in the oven. Under-whipped or greasy whites will collapse or weep.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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