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 ↓
An Apple Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Cut the apples into small pieces.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the apples.
Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon or nutmeg, and rose water or lemon peel.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the apples are soft.
Mash the baked apples into a marmalade consistency.
Assemble and bake
Dip the bread triangles in melted butter.
Butter a deep dish and arrange the bread in the bottom, points meeting in the center.
Spread a thick layer of apple over the bread, then add more bread and apple layers until the dish is full.
Top with a final layer of bread and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 15 minutes.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Apples
- Break down into a soft, marmalade-like filling that gives the charlotte its body and sweetness.
- Bread
- Forms the structure of the dish, holding its shape as the apple filling softens.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the apples and bread, and helps the bread brown.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them soften and thicken into a marmalade.
The step that matters
Mashing the baked apples to a marmalade consistency. Apples that are too chunky or too wet leave gaps and pockets of liquid between the bread layers, so the charlotte may not hold together when served. Cooking them until soft and mashing them thick gives a filling that spreads evenly and sets firm.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cinnamon, rose, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cinnamon, rose, bread. 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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