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 ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare a pie crust and fill it with thick sliced apples.
Season the apples with cinnamon or nutmeg and dot with butter.
Make a small opening in the center of the upper crust.
Bake and finish
Bake the pie until thoroughly done.
In a saucepan, cook sugar with water until it becomes a syrup, adding water as necessary.
When the pie is done and still hot, pour the syrup carefully through the opening in the crust.
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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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Cinnamon + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar 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
- Thick sliced apples
- Form the filling bulk and soften into the tender body of the pie.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, cooked into a syrup, adds sweetness after baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the apples.
- Cinnamon or nutmeg
- Adds warm aromatic flavor that complements the cooked apples.
The step that matters
Pouring the syrup into the hot pie. The syrup must be added while the pie is still hot so it can flow down through the apples and settle rather than sit on top. Pouring carefully through the small vent keeps the crust from cracking or the syrup from running over the edge.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, butter, sugar. 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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