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Dessert

Apple Dessert

A dessert of apples cooked in sugar syrup, filled with marmalade, topped with blanched almonds, and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Apple Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a syrup by combining 2 cups of sugar with enough water to cover it.

  2. Core the apples and add them to the syrup.

Cook and fill

  1. Cook the apples until they are transparent but not mushy.

  2. Remove the apples from the syrup and fill the centers with orange marmalade.

  3. Press blanched almonds into the apples.

Serve

  1. Pour the syrup over the apples 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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the water to form a syrup that sweetens and moistens the apples.
Firm small apples
Hold their shape during cooking, providing the dessert's main body and structure.
Orange marmalade
Adds sweetness, acidity and a bright citrus aroma inside the apples.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a cool, creamy contrast to the warm, syrupy apples.

The step that matters

Cook the apples until transparent but not mushy. Apples keep firm structure only while their pectin and cell walls hold together. Overcooking softens the cell walls until the apples collapse, so they should be checked as they simmer.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, 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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