Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Pare and quarter the apples, removing the core from each quarter.
Place the apples in a well-buttered deep baking dish.
Assemble the pie
Cover the apples with a thick layer of sugar and add 3 tablespoons of rose water and scattered bits of butter.
Roll out pie crust to create a 1-inch wide rim around the dish above the apples.
Roll out enough pie crust for a cover and fit it on top.
Make a small cut in the center of the cover to allow steam to escape.
Bake
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crust is nicely done.
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.
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + rosetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together235 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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 fruit filling that softens and becomes tender as the pie bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and draws out juice that forms the syrupy filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the apples as it melts over them in the dish.
- Pie crust
- Forms the rim and cover that contain the filling and brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Cut a steam vent in the cover. Apples release steam and juice as they heat. Without a vent, pressure builds under the crust, which can lift it, split it, or push filling out unevenly.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, rose, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rose, butter. 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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