Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. 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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Fill a pie crust with sliced tart apples.
Assemble
Sprinkle the apples with brown sugar and cinnamon, then add bits of butter.
Mix 1 teaspoon of flour with a little water until smooth, then pour over the apples.
Bake
Cover with a second pie crust and bake until golden brown.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Tart apples
- Provide the main filling, softening as they bake and releasing juices that moisten the pie.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and deeper caramel-like flavor, and helps the filling and crust brown.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma and spice that complements the cooked apples.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, improving flavor and mouthfeel of the filling.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the apple juices so the filling sets rather than running out of the pie.
The step that matters
Mix the flour and water until smooth. Flour added to liquid stays lumpy if not fully combined. Mixing until smooth spreads the starch evenly, so it thickens the juices uniformly instead of leaving dry pockets of raw flour in the filling.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter, flour. 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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