Why it works: Wheat and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 359 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Appls Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the basin
Grease the bottom and sides of a basin with a bit of batter.
Line the basin with the sliced bread or rolls.
Fill and press
Fill the pan with the chopped apples, sprinkling bits of batter and sugar between the layers.
Grate nutmeg over the apples.
Soak enough slices of bread or rolls to cover the top.
Place a plate and a weight on top to press the bread down onto the apples.
Bake and serve
Bake for 2 hours in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Turn it out onto a serving plate.
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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Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together359 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Wheat + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together205 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Bread or rolls
- Forms the crisp-edged outer shell that holds the apples in shape.
- Batter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the bread soak and bind to the fruit.
- Tart apples
- Provide the main filling, with moisture and a sharp flavor that balances the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelize slightly during baking.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the apples.
The step that matters
Press the bread down onto the apples. Pressing keeps the layers compact so the filling sets firmly and the charlotte holds its shape when turned out instead of collapsing into loose apple pieces.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, sugar, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sugar, nutmeg. 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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