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Dessert

Centennial Apple Pie

A baked apple pie with a puff pastry crust and a spiced apple filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Centennial Apple Pie

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.

Make the apple filling

  1. Combine chopped apples, water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest in a stew pan.

  2. Stew over low heat until the apples are soft.

  3. Sweeten to taste, then pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Add egg yolks, egg white, butter, grated nutmeg, and lemon juice; mix well.

Bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry, fill with the apple mixture, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling, softening into a purée when stewed and sieved.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the filling as it sets in the oven.
Egg white
Adds structure and lightness, helping the filling set.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky crust that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Pass the stewed apples through a fine sieve. Sieving removes skins and lumps so the filling becomes smooth. Adding the eggs and butter afterward needs the mixture well blended so the filling sets evenly rather than curdling or turning grainy.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg. 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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