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Dessert

Boston Apple Pie

A pie made with sour apples, sugar, butter, nutmeg, and a crust, baked and served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boston Apple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a pie tin with the rolled pie crust.

  3. Fill the crust with the sliced sour apples.

  4. Sprinkle the apples with coarse sea salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake with the upper crust until done.

  2. Quickly remove the upper crust.

  3. Stir the beaten egg into the hot apples to scald it.

  4. Add sugar, butter, and grated nutmeg, mixing well.

  5. Replace the upper crust.

  6. Serve warm, preferably with cream.

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.

  1. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Sour apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and its tart acidity, which balances the sugar.
Egg
Binds and thickens the hot apple juices into a softly set filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharp flavor of the sour apples.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the filling.
Pie crust
Gives the filling a structured base and holds it in the tin.
Nutmeg
Adds warm aroma that complements the cooked apples.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten egg into the hot apples. Stirring the egg into hot fruit warms it gradually, so it thickens the juices smoothly instead of scrambling. Keep stirring steadily while adding it.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, 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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