Name: French Apple Dessert
Ingredients: fruit base; 6 cup thinly sliced pared tart; apples; 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg; 1/4 cup skim milk; 2 tbsp margerine, softened; 3 egg whites or ½ cup; cholesterol-free egg; product; 1 cup sugar; 1/4 cup bisquick reduced fat; baking mix; streusel; 1 cup bisquick reduced fat baking; mix; 1/2 cup chopped nuts; 1/3 cup packed brown sugar; 3 tbsp firm margerine

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Cinnamon and sugar 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 fruit base and moisture that bakes into the dish.
Eggs: Help set the batter so it bakes into a custard-like structure.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning of the top.
Reduced fat baking mix: Provides flour for structure and binds the batter and streusel.
Margarine (in the method): Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the streusel and batter.
Brown sugar: Adds moisture and caramel flavor to the streusel topping.

The step that matters

Bake until a knife comes out clean. The batter sets as the eggs and flour cook through, so pulling the dish too early leaves it wet in the centre, while overbaking dries it out.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, egg, sugar):

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, egg, sugar. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Fruit	not in our table	0
Nuts	not in our table	0

French Apple Dessert