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Dessert

Date-apple Torte

A baked torte made with diced tart apples, dates, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg, butter, nuts, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,501 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Date-apple Torte

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the apples, then cut them into thin slices.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed; do not beat.

  3. Turn the mixture into a greased, shallow baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 40 minutes, until the apples are tender.

  2. Cut into generous squares and serve hot or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  2. Dates + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Apple + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Binds the batter and helps set the torte as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the torte rises and stays light.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter sets into a sliceable torte.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the torte and helps it brown at the edges.
Tart apples
Supply moisture and tartness that balance the sweet batter.

The step that matters

Stirring the batter. The record says to stir until just mixed and not to beat. Beating develops gluten in the flour, which can make the torte tough and dense instead of tender.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, dates, sugar, flour, egg, butter, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, dates, sugar, flour, egg, butter, vanilla. 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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