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Dessert

Scalloped Apples

A baked apple dish with bread crumbs, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, core, and cut the apples into eighths.

  2. Mix the bread crumbs, melted butter, and nutmeg in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer half of the apples in a small baking dish and sprinkle half of the sugar over them.

  2. Cover with half of the bread crumb mixture and repeat the layers.

  3. Pour the boiling water over the top, cover the dish, and bake for 30-60 minutes.

  4. Uncover and bake until the crumbs are brown and the apples are tender.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with clear vanilla sauce or hard sauce.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

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

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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 that balances the sugar.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bake into a browned, crisp topping.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the crumbs brown.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelize slightly as they bake.

The step that matters

Uncovering to brown the crumbs. Baking covered traps steam, so the crumbs stay pale and soft. Uncovering lets moisture escape, allowing the crumb topping to brown and crisp while the apples finish softening.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, bread, butter, 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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