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Dessert

Chopped Apple Pie

A pie made with chopped apples, raisins, eggs, sweet cider, butter, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chopped Apple Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped apples, raisins, eggs, sweet cider, butter, and sugar.

  2. Add salt, nutmeg, and cloves to taste, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Greening apples
Provide the main bulk and tart flavour of the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender, flavourful filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the crust brown.
Sweet cider
Adds moisture and fruity flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until the crust is golden brown. Baking long enough lets the eggs set the filling so it holds its shape when sliced. Underbaking leaves a runny center, while the golden crust signals that the pastry is cooked through.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, cider, butter, sugar, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, cider, butter, sugar, nutmeg, clove. 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.

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