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 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Peel and chop the apples into small bits.
Dry the bread and roll it into crumbs.
Assemble and bake
Butter a baking dish and layer the crumbs, apples, sugar, spice, and chopped suet alternately.
Pour the milk over the layered mixture.
Bake until nicely browned.
Serve with hard sauce.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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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
- Apples
- Provide the main fruit body and tartness that flavours the dish.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk and give the layers a soft, pudding-like body.
- Beef suet
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the layers moist as they bake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
- Milk
- Moistens the crumbs and sets into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until nicely browned. Baking long enough lets the milk set and the sugars caramelise on top. Pulling it too early leaves a wet, loose centre.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, sugar, cinnamon, beef, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
- Raisinfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sugar, cinnamon, beef, milk. 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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