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Dessert

Apple Pot-pie

A baked apple dish with a biscuit-like crust and apple filling, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Peel, core, and slice fourteen apples.

  2. Measure 1‑1/2 pints flour, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, 1 cupful sugar, 1/2 cupful butter, 1 cupful milk, and a large pinch of salt.

  3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

  4. Rub the cold butter into the sifted flour mixture.

  5. Add the milk and mix into a dough as for tea biscuits.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a shallow stewpan with the dough to within two inches of the bottom.

  2. Pour 1‑1/2 cupfuls water, the sliced apples, and sugar into the pan.

  3. Wet the edges of the dough and cover with the remaining dough.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the pan in a moderate oven until the apples are cooked.

  2. Remove the pie from the oven.

  3. Cut the top crust into four equal parts.

  4. Dish the apples onto a plate.

  5. Lay the side crust pieces cut in diamonds on the apples, and place the top crust pieces on a plate.

  6. Serve with cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

755Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the pie together while baking.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to make the crust tender and flaky.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the crust rises and stays light.
Apples (in the method)
Provide the main filling, softening as they cook into the pie.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Place the pan in a moderate oven until the apples are cooked. Apples must be cooked through while the crust bakes; underbaking leaves firm fruit and a raw dough base, while overbaking can dry the crust.

“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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