Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. 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
Pare and core the apples.
Pack the apples in a pudding dish.
Fill the holes left by the cores with sugar.
Place a clove in each apple.
Bake and cool
Pour in 1 cup of cold water.
Cover closely.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the apples are tender and clear.
Do not remove the cover until the apples are completely cool.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Provide the main body and soft, tender flesh that holds shape and absorbs syrup as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps form a syrupy sauce as the apples cook in the water.
- Cloves
- Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the apples during baking.
The step that matters
Covering and cooling before uncovering. Keeping the cover on while the apples cool lets steam and syrup settle back into the flesh, so they stay moist instead of drying or wrinkling when the lid is lifted too early.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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