Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. 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
Peel, core, and stew the apples until transparent.
Pass the apples through a sieve and sweeten to taste.
Add 1 cup of cream and mix well.
Assemble and bake
Prepare puff pastry and fill with the apple mixture.
Beat the whites of 4 eggs to a stiff froth and mix in 6 tablespoons of sugar and lemon flavor.
Spread the egg mixture over the pies.
Return the pies to a 400°F (200°C) oven and brown lightly.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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 flavor of the pie filling once stewed and sieved.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the apple filling.
- Whites of 4 eggs
- Whipped to a stiff froth, they create a light, airy topping that sets and browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apple filling and the whipped egg topping.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, layered crust that holds the filling.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff so they hold air; under-whipped whites will deflate and spread rather than forming a light topping that sets in the oven.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg, lemon. 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
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 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.