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Dessert

Apple Meringue Pie

A pie of stewed apples topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Apple Meringue 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.

Make the apple filling

  1. Peel, slice, and stew the apples until soft, then mash and season with nutmeg and grated lemon peel.

  2. Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture and bake at 350°F (175°C) until just done.

Make and brown the meringue

  1. In a bowl, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, then gradually add sugar and vanilla extract.

  2. Spread the meringue over the apples, covering it about three-quarters of an inch thick.

  3. Brown the meringue in the oven until golden.

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 + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the filling once stewed and mashed.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that sets into the light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and stabilizes the whipped egg white foam.
Pie crust
Holds the apple filling in a shell while it bakes.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks before adding sugar. Egg whites must be fully whipped before sugar is added gradually; any trace of fat or yolk prevents proper foaming, and adding sugar too early slows foam formation. Stiff, glossy peaks give a meringue that holds its shape and browns evenly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Blueberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

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