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Apple Soup^ No. 1

A sweet apple soup made with apples, water, lemon peel, cinnamon, cornstarch, sugar, and white wine, served with zwieback.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Apple Soup^ No. 1

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,598 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Soup^ No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Peel and stew the 8 apples until soft.

  2. Squeeze the apples through a sieve and sweeten with sugar.

  3. Add 1 quart of water, lemon peel, cinnamon, and cornstarch.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes, then remove the cinnamon and lemon peel.

  5. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the apple pieces

  1. Peel and core the 4 large apples, cut each into 8 parts.

  2. Boil the apple pieces in sugar syrup until tender, but do not break them.

  3. Place the cooked apple pieces in a tureen.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup and pour it over the apples along with ½ pint of white wine.

  2. Serve with zwieback.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,779 recipes mention both: they likely 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
Stewed and sieved to give the soup its body and fruity flavour, while the cut apples add texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as it boils, giving the soup a lightly body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the finished soup.
Sugar
Sweetens the soup and balances the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Boil the apple pieces in sugar syrup until tender, but do not break them. Apple pieces keep their shape only if they are cooked just until tender; overcooking softens the cell walls until they collapse into mush, so the pieces should be checked often.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, sugar, syrup, white wine):

  1. Pearbetter flavor fit
  2. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  3. Plumbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, sugar, syrup, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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