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Dessert

Apple-custard Pie

A pie filled with stewed apples, egg yolk, butter, sugar, and nutmeg, topped with frosted egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple-custard Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel, core, and stew the sour apples until soft.

  2. Mash the apples very fine.

  3. In a bowl, combine the mashed apples, egg yolk, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust, similar to pumpkin pie.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. Spread the egg white on top as frosting and return to the oven for a few minutes to brown.

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 + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Sour apples
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the filling once cooked and mashed.
Egg yolk
Helps the mashed apple mixture thicken and set into a custard when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the sour apples.
Egg white
Whipped or spread on top, it sets and browns in the oven to form a frosting.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set. Underbaking leaves the egg yolk filling runny, while overbaking can make the egg curdle and turn grainy. Watch for the filling to firm up at the edges and centre.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg. 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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