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Dessert

Baked Apples

A baked apple dish filled with butter, sugar, cinnamon, topped with walnuts and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Baked Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Peel the apples and remove the core as much as possible.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the center of each apple with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

  2. If desired, add a red cinnamon drop to each apple for extra flavor.

  3. Place the apples in a covered dish without adding water.

  4. Bake until tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with English walnuts in the center and whipped cream on top.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon 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
Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, spoonable flesh when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the cinnamon and sugar into the apple as it melts.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize slightly in the baking dish.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor that pairs with the baked apple.
English walnuts
Add a crunchy texture and nutty flavor contrast to the soft apple.
Whipped cream
Adds cool, creamy richness that contrasts with the warm baked apple.

The step that matters

Remove the core without piercing the base. Coring leaves a cavity to hold the butter, sugar and cinnamon. If the base is pierced, the filling can leak out during baking and the apple may dry or collapse unevenly.

“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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