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Dessert

Spiced Beer

A dessert pie topped with a spiced beer sauce made from apples, cinnamon, sugars, and beer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Spiced Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the pie

  1. Place an inverted custard cup in the center of a baking dish about 3 inches deep.

  2. Fill the dish with prepared apples.

  3. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of coarse sea salt.

  4. Pour the mixture over the apples.

  5. Dot the apples with butter.

  6. Cover the apples with a top crust.

  7. Prick the crust in several places with a fork.

  8. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is deep brown.

Bake the apple

  1. Core the apple and make a cut around it.

  2. Fill the apple with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the skin splits.

  4. Mash the baked apple into a smooth paste.

Make the spiced beer and serve

  1. Melt granulated sugar with hot water and apple pulp.

  2. Add spices to the mixture.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Add beer to the mixture.

  5. Heat the mixture without boiling.

  6. Break the crust with a fork.

  7. Pour the spiced beer on top of the pie.

  8. Let the pie stand for another 10 minutes in the oven.

  9. Serve.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Apple
Provides the bulk, moisture and fruit flavor that the spiced sauce is built on.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses flavor, and helps the top brown during baking.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves into the hot liquid to make it smooth.
Dow ale
Adds liquid and malty, slightly bitter flavor to the spiced sauce.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that pairs with the apple.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture without boiling. Boiling drives off alcohol and delicate aroma compounds from the beer and can make the sauce taste harsher. Gentle heat keeps the beer's flavor and the sauce's smooth texture.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, 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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