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Dessert

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

Layered apples with apricot marmalade and a frothy egg custard, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

An Apple Hedge-hog, or Suedoise

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Stew the apples in a light syrup made with ½ pint water and 6 ounces sugar until tender.

  2. Drain the apples and arrange them in a dish in layers.

Fill the dish

  1. Fill the spaces between the apples with apricot marmalade.

  2. Stew additional apples to make a smooth and dry marmalade, filling any remaining spaces.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the eggs to a solid froth and mix with 2 heaped tablespoons sugar.

  2. Spread the egg mixture evenly over the dish and dust with fine sugar.

  3. Decorate with blanched almonds cut lengthwise.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the almonds are browned and the apples are heated through.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

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

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
Form the bulk of the dish, softening into a tender layer under the topping.
Apricot marmalade
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, filling the gaps between the apple layers.
Eggs
Whipped to a froth, they set into a light topping when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and the egg topping, and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs to a solid froth. Whipped egg foam traps air and sets into a light topping when baked. If the eggs are under-beaten, the topping will be dense and may sink into the fruit.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, apricot, 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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