Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
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.
Prepare the filling
Peel and chop the apples, then stew them until soft and sweeten to taste.
Grate the rind of the lemon and stir it in with the egg yolk.
Bake and top
Place the pie crust in the bottom of a pie dish and fill it with the apple mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Beat the egg white with sugar until frothy, then spread it on top of the pie.
Return the pie to the oven for a few minutes until the topping is set.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 bulk of the filling and its tart, fruity flavour.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps bind the lemon rind into the filling.
- Egg white
- Whipped with sugar, it forms a light topping that sets in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps the egg white whip into a stable froth.
The step that matters
Returning the pie to the oven for the topping. Egg white topping sets quickly with heat but can turn rubbery or weep if overbaked. Watch it closely and remove it as soon as it is set.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, egg, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, egg, 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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