Why it works: Apple and blackberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 110 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Apples, Baked
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Pare and core the apples, keeping them whole.
Roll up the apple peel tightly and place it in the center of each apple.
Brush the apples with egg white and let them dry.
Re-coat the apples with egg white.
Sprinkle the apples with castor sugar.
Place the apples in a greased pie dish.
Cover the apples with greased paper.
Bake and finish
Bake until tender, about 1 hour, being careful not to overcook.
Remove the apple peel.
Fill the cavity with your choice of jam or jelly.
Add a small piece of butter and some brown sugar if desired.
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.
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Apple + blackberrytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together110 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + blackberrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,033 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + blackberrytop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together472 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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
- Apples
- Form the main structure and soften into a tender, spoonable body when baked.
- Egg white
- Forms a thin glossy coating that helps the sugar cling to the apple skins.
- Castor sugar
- Adds sweetness and lightly browns the surface as the apples bake.
- Jam or jelly
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavor inside the cored cavity as it warms.
The step that matters
Bake until tender, without overcooking. Apples soften as their cell walls break down with heat. Overcooking turns the flesh mushy and can collapse the apples out of shape.
Swap the blackberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Blackberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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