Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the apples and cut them into quarters.
Remove the cores and slice the apples.
Add sugar, cloves, and lemon peel to the apples.
If available, add quince to enhance the flavor.
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 + quincetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Clove + quincetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together164 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together336 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, quince):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovethe original
- Gingerfits about as well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, quince. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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