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Dessert

Apple Pie

A classic pie with sliced apples in a buttery crust, topped with a second crust and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 425°F (220°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and sugar.

  2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  3. Stir in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until dough forms a ball.

  4. Divide dough in half, shape into discs, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Assemble the pie

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).

  2. Roll out one disc of dough on a floured surface to fit a 9-inch pie plate.

  3. Place the rolled dough in the pie plate and fill with sliced apples.

  4. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.

  5. Dot with butter and cover with the second rolled disc of dough.

  6. Seal edges and cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

Bake

  1. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 15 minutes.

  2. Reduce temperature to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until apples are soft.

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets around the filling.
Unsalted butter
Stays in cold pieces in the dough, creating flaky layers as it melts and steams during baking.
Apples
Form the filling, softening as they bake and releasing juices that thicken with the flour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling juices become syrupy as the apples cook.
Egg
Brushed on the top crust to promote browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Keep the butter cold when cutting it into the flour. Small cold butter pieces melt during baking and leave pockets that make the crust flaky. If the butter softens or melts into the flour, the crust becomes dense and tough.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, egg. 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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