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Dessert

German Apple Pie

A pie of sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, water, and a biscuit crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

German Apple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a deep pudding dish, invert a tea cup in the center.

  3. Fill the dish with sliced apples, sweeten with sugar, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour water over the apples.

Make the crust and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, butter, and baking powder. Add milk to form a soft dough.

  2. Cover the apples with the biscuit crust.

  3. Bake until golden brown. The inverted cup will be full of delicious juice.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sliced apples
Provide the fruit filling that softens and becomes tender as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the soft biscuit-style crust that covers the apples.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the crust rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crust tender and adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps the filling juices taste balanced.

The step that matters

Covering the apples with the crust. The dough must seal the dish well so juices stay in and the crust bakes evenly on top. A soft dough that is too wet can spread and sink into the fruit, so it should hold its shape when placed over the apples.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter, milk. 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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