Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
2 medium-sized cooking apples, sugar and cinnamon or lemon peel to taste. Some paste for short crust. Pare, core, and cut up the apples, and fill a small pie-dish with them; add sugar and cinnamon to taste, and a little water. Cover with paste, and bake in a fairly quick oven until brown, then let cook gently for another 1/4 hour in a cooler part of the oven.
POTATO SOUP (2).
2 medium-sized potatoes, 1 small onion chopped fine, and fried a nice brown in butter or vege-butter, 1/4 pint milk, 3/4 pint water, 1 piece of celery, pepper and salt to taste. Peel, wash, and cut up the potatoes, and cut up the celery. Boil with the water until tender. Rub the vegetables through a sieve, return the soup to the saucepan, add seasoning, milk, and onion; boil up and serve.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Apple | 1 medium (182g) | 95 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, celery, apple, potato, cinnamon, lemon, pepper):
- Carrotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, celery, apple, potato, cinnamon, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More apple pie recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes