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Dessert

Apple Pie

A pie of tart apples simmered in a sugared lemon‑nutmeg syrup, topped with whipped cream and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 filling

  1. Quarter the tart apples, remove the core, and peel them.

  2. In a porcelain saucepan, make a syrup with white sugar, flavor it with strained lemon juice, nutmeg, and whole cloves.

  3. Scald the apples in the syrup until slightly tender, then set aside to cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a deep pie dish with puff pastry and fill it with the cooled apples.

  2. Dust the apples with flour and bits of butter, then wash them with ⅓ cup of brandy.

  3. Bake the pie uncovered at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Alternative filling

  1. Alternatively, stew the apples until tender, then rub them through a sieve.

  2. Sweeten and flavor the apple puree to taste, then mix in ½ pint of whipped cream and the beaten egg whites.

  3. Spread this mixture on a separately baked pie crust.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and, once cooked, its soft texture and tart flavor.
White sugar
Sweetens the syrup and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon juice.
Flour
Dusted over the apples to help thicken the juices released during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the apples as they bake.
Egg whites
Beaten into the puree to add lightness and help the alternative filling set.
Whipped cream
Mixed into the puree to make the alternative filling lighter and creamier.

The step that matters

Scalding the apples in the syrup. Heating them only until slightly tender lets them finish softening in the oven without turning mushy or releasing excess liquid into the pie.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, nutmeg, clove, flour, butter, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, nutmeg, clove, flour, butter, brandy. 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.

More apple pie recipes

Green 20Dried 19English 13Mock 13German 10Lemon 10 See all 369 →

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