Name: Apple Soup
Ingredients: 6 apples, peeled and cored; 8 cups water; cinnamon bark, to taste; lemon peel, to taste; sugar, to taste; a tiny bit of salt

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon 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 ↓

Apple Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Cut the apples into pieces and boil them in 8 cups of water until tender.
Strain the mixture through a colander and return the liquid to the pot.
Bring it to a boil again, adding cinnamon bark, lemon peel, sugar, and a tiny bit of salt.

Serve

Serve hot or cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Apples: Break down when boiled, releasing flavour and natural sweetness into the water to form the soup's body.
Cinnamon bark: Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Lemon peel: Adds bright citrus aroma that lifts the sweetness of the apples.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the apples and lemon.