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).
Make and fill the pie
In a bowl, combine the grated apples, water, sugar, butter, and cinnamon or nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Top with beaten egg whites or whipped cream.
Bake
Bake until golden brown.
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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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Tart apples
- Provide the main filling body, moisture, and tart flavor once cooked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, balances the tartness of the apples, and helps the filling brown.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the cooked filling.
- Egg whites
- Beaten stiff, they form an airy topping that sets and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites stiff. Well-beaten egg whites trap air in a foam that holds its shape and sets when heated. Under-beaten whites stay runny and can slide off the filling and bake unevenly.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cinnamon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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