Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stuffed Apples
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Core the apples, removing as much of the inside as possible without making them too thin.
Stuff and bake
In a bowl, mix the chopped apples, raisins, pecans, butter, and sugar.
Stuff the mixture into the cored apples.
Place the stuffed apples in a baking dish and add 1 teaspoon of sherry to each apple.
Bake until the apples are tender.
Serve
Serve with whipped cream mixed with a little sherry, and top each apple with a candied cherry.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together395 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Pecans + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,416 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,920 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Their flesh softens as they bake, holding the filling inside the tender shell.
- Raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
- Pecans
- Add crunch and toasty flavor that contrasts with the soft apple.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and a light, wine-like flavor to the baked apples.
The step that matters
Bake until the apples are tender. Apples that are underbaked stay firm and hard to cut, while overbaking can make the skins split and the shells collapse. Check for a fork to slide in easily through the flesh.
Swap the pecans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, butter, sugar, sherry, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Pecansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, butter, sugar, sherry, 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.
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipes
Dried Apple Cake51 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.