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 ↓
Baked Apple
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
Wipe and core the apple.
Place the apple in an agate baking dish.
Fill the center of the apple with sugar and lemon juice.
Pour water around the apple.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 45 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.
Once soft, place the apple in a dish and pour the juice over it.
Serve cold with plain or whipped cream.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,089 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Sour apple
- Provides the fruit that softens and becomes the main body of the dessert.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apple and helps form syrupy juices as it dissolves during baking.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the sugar.
- Water
- Creates steam and liquid in the dish so the apple bakes moist and basting keeps it from drying.
The step that matters
Basting every 10 minutes during baking. Basting returns the pan juices over the apple, keeping its surface moist and helping it soften evenly. Without it, the exposed top can dry out before the flesh is tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cream. 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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