Name: Apple Cranberry Pie
Ingredients: Filling:; 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar; 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 4 Jonagold apples, peeled, cored, quartered and each quarter cut crosswise into 4 pieces; 2/3 cup fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (or 1/2 cup dried cranberries soaked in boiling water 5 minutes and drained); Pie Pastry:; Combine sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon with fingertips or 2 knives until crumbly; set aside.; 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1/4 teaspoon salt 5; tablespoons chilled butter or margarine; 3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓

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 + appletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Apples: Soften during baking and provide the body and sweetness of the filling.
Cranberries: Add tart acidity that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps draw juices out of the fruit.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the juices in the filling and gives structure to the pastry.
Butter: Adds fat that makes the pastry flaky and tender and enriches the crumb topping.

The step that matters

Covering the crust with foil. Thin pastry edges brown faster than the filling heats through. Covering them with foil when needed prevents burning while the apples finish softening.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon. 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Pie	not in our table	0
Pastry	not in our table	0

Apple Cranberry Pie