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Dessert

German Fruit Pie

A baked apple pie with a soft dough crust, cinnamon, molasses, and sugared topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

German Fruit Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift together baking powder and flour.

  2. Add butter, salt, beaten egg, and enough sweet milk to form a soft dough.

  3. Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.

Assemble the pie

  1. Butter a square biscuit tin.

  2. Line the bottom and sides of the tin with the dough.

  3. Fill the pan with quartered apples.

  4. Sprinkle the apples with cinnamon and molasses.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crust and apples are light brown.

  2. Sprinkle sugar over the top five minutes before removing from the oven.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the soft dough together and sets around the apples.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the crust rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crust and carries flavor.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure as it sets.
Apples
Supply moisture and tart flavor that soften and fill the pie as they bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep caramel-like flavor as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until the crust and apples are light brown. Baking long enough sets the starch and egg in the dough and softens the apples, while stopping early leaves the crust doughy and the apples firm.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, molasses, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, molasses, sugar. 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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