Why it works: Orange and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,371 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Apple Pie
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 the apples
Stew the apples in a syrup made by dissolving sugar in water until tender, being careful not to break them.
Assemble the pie
Line a dish with puff pastry and arrange the apples inside, filling the center of each with orange marmalade.
Sprinkle the apples with chopped citron peel.
Pour the reduced cooking syrup mixed with essence of vanilla over the apples.
Lay strips of puff pastry over the apples.
Bake and serve
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry is golden.
Serve cold with whipped 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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Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,371 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,501 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Apples
- Form the filling and soften into tender fruit as they stew in syrup.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky crust that lines the dish and covers the apples.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps the apples keep their shape while stewing.
- Orange marmalade
- Adds sweetness and bright citrus flavor in the center of each apple.
The step that matters
Stew the apples gently. Apples stewed too hard break apart and turn mushy. Gentle simmering in syrup softens them while keeping their shape for the pie.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, vanilla, cream):
- Strawberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, vanilla, cream. 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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