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 ↓
Pot Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and quarter the apples.
Slice the pork into strips about ½ inch wide.
Mix a light biscuit dough using cold ingredients.
Layer and cook
In an iron kettle, lay the pork strips across the bottom, spaced ½ inch apart.
Loosely layer the quartered apples on top of the pork.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
Slice the biscuit dough into strips and lay them crosswise over the apples, leaving 1 inch between each strip.
Repeat layering until all ingredients are used, finishing with the biscuit dough on top.
Carefully pour 1 cup of boiling water down the side of the kettle.
Cover and cook slowly for 1.5 hours, adding boiling water as needed.
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.
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + biscuittop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together312 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
-
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Biscuit + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together889 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Tart apples
- Provide the fruit filling and tartness that balances the sugar.
- Fat salt pork
- Renders fat into the kettle, adding richness and savoury flavour to the apples.
- Biscuit dough
- Forms a soft, tender crust over the layers that steams as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelise slightly as they cook.
- Boiling water
- Creates steam and moisture so the pot cooks gently without drying out.
The step that matters
Cover and cook slowly for 1.5 hours. Low, steady heat lets the apples soften and the biscuit dough steam through without scorching on the pot bottom. Adding boiling water as needed keeps moisture up, so the base does not dry out or burn.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, cinnamon, biscuit, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, cinnamon, biscuit, flour. 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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