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 ↓
Baked Apples
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.
Prepare
Wash, wipe, and core the apples.
Place them in a granite or earthen dish.
Fill and add water
Fill the cavities with sugar, butter, and cinnamon or nutmeg.
If using nutmeg, add a slight grating of lemon rind and a few drops of lemon juice to each apple.
Cover the bottom of the dish with boiling water to a depth of ½ inch.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the apples are soft, basting often with the syrup in the pan.
Serve hot or cold, with or without cream.
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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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Hold their shape while softening, and their tartness balances the sweet filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, with the pan syrup, caramelizes slightly as the apples bake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts into the apples.
- Cinnamon or nutmeg
- Adds warm spice aroma to the filling.
The step that matters
Basting often with the syrup in the pan. Spooning the pan liquid over the apples keeps their surfaces moist and helps them cook evenly, so they soften through without drying or splitting at the skin.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon, butter. 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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