Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Apple Bread
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.
Prepare the dough
Prepare dough as for rusks and let it rise until very light.
Roll out half of the dough to ½ inch thick.
Layer and bake
Spread stewed apples over the rolled dough.
Roll out the second half of the dough and place it over the apples.
Let the dough rise in a pan for a short time.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.
Top and finish
Once baked, lay thin slices of tender stewed apples on top.
Sprinkle with sugar and small bits of butter, then add nutmeg or cinnamon.
Return to the oven until the sugar forms a coating.
Let cool and slice to serve.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten structure of the dough that holds the layers together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the dough and a glossy finish on top.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the top and caramelizes into a golden coating in the oven.
- Stewed apples
- Provides moisture and fruity flavor between and on top of the dough layers.
The step that matters
Return to the oven until the sugar forms a coating. Sugar melts and caramelizes quickly at high heat, so it can burn before it forms an even coating. Watch closely and stop once the surface is glossy and golden.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, nutmeg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, nutmeg. 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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