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Dessert

Apple Meringue Cake

A cake with a meringue topping and grated apple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Meringue Cake

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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly.

  3. Add the egg yolks and re-cream.

  4. Sift together the flour, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder.

  5. Add 3 tablespoons of the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture. Cream the mixture well.

  6. Alternately add the milk and remaining dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Beat the mixture hard for 3 minutes.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased and floured shallow pan.

  8. Bake the batter until nearly done.

Make the topping and finish

  1. Peel and grate the apple.

  2. Beat the egg whites until light. Add the cream of tartar and blended sugar to the egg whites.

  3. Blend the cinnamon and flour. Mix the blended cinnamon and flour with the grated apple.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the apple mixture. Spread the combined mixture over the cake.

  5. Return the cake to the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten, form the light meringue topping.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, fine crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the beaten egg white meringue.
Tart apple
Adds moisture and a bright acidity that balances the sweet topping.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until light. Whites must be beaten to a stable foam with cream of tartar and sugar; under-beaten or greasy whites will not hold up and the topping will weep or flatten.

Swap the apple

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

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

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