Name: Sliced Apple Pie
Ingredients: Pie crust; 4-5 tablespoons sugar; Tart apples, sliced very thin; A little ground cinnamon; Small bits of butter; 1 tablespoon water; Flour for dredging

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 ↓

Sliced 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 and fill

Line the pie pan with crust and sprinkle with sugar.
Fill the crust with thinly sliced tart apples, sprinkle with sugar and a little cinnamon.
Add small bits of butter and 1 tablespoon of water, then dredge with flour.

Bake and serve

Cover with the top crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30-45 minutes.
Alternatively, bake the pie with the top crust.
Remove the top crust, add sugar, butter, and cinnamon, then replace the crust.
Serve warm.

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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: Form the bulk of the filling and provide the tart flavour that balances the sugar.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices that form the filling's syrup.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, melting into the filling as it bakes.
Flour: Dredged over the filling, it helps thicken the juices released by the apples.
Ground cinnamon: Adds warm aroma that complements the apples.