Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Delicate 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
Prepare 4 cups of stewed apples and let them cool completely.
Make the filling
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the cooled stewed apples to the butter and sugar mixture.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites, then the beaten egg yolks.
Add lemon flavoring to taste.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg whites and yolks add structure and richness, helping the filling set when baked.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds fat and a tender, rich texture to the filling.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps give the filling a light texture.
- Stewed apples
- Provide moisture and the main apple flavor and body of the filling.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites and yolks. Folding gently keeps air in the beaten egg whites, which helps the filling rise and stay light. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and makes the texture dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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