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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Peel, core, and slice enough green apples for a pie.
Sprinkle the apples with sugar, cinnamon, flour, water, and butter.
Stir all the ingredients together with a spoon.
Assemble and bake
Put the mixture into a pie tin lined with pie paste.
Cover with a top crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35 minutes.
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 + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Green apples
- Provide the main body and tart flavour of the pie filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juice that softens the apples.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices from the apples so the filling sets rather than running.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the filling taste rounded.
- Pie paste
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Covering and baking the pie. The flour must have enough time and heat to thicken the apple juices, while the crust bakes through without the filling boiling over. Sealing the top crust well keeps juices in and lets the filling set during baking.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter. 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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