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Dessert

Apple Cobbler

Apple Cobbler is a baked dessert of sliced tart apples topped with a soft gingerbread-like dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apple Cobbler

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a deep graniteware dish with pie-crust dough.

  2. Fill the dish with sliced tart apples and enough sugar to sweeten to taste.

  3. Sprinkle a small quantity of ground cinnamon and cloves over the top.

  4. In a bowl, mix sufficient flour with ½ teaspoon baking powder to achieve a soft gingerbread consistency.

  5. Prepare a clean bag for boiling by dipping it in hot water and sprinkling it with flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding for three to four hours, suspending it in a pot of boiling water.

  2. Ensure the water remains boiling throughout the cooking period.

  3. Serve with sauce to taste.

  4. Substitute sliced peaches or other fruits for apples.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Pie-crust dough
Forms the outer shell that holds the fruit filling in the dish.
Sliced tart apples
Provide the main fruit filling and its tart flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart apples to taste.
Flour
Thickens the mixture to a soft, gingerbread-like consistency.
Baking powder
Lightens the flour mixture so it rises and becomes less dense.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling throughout cooking. Boiling water must surround the bag for the full three to four hours. If the water drops below a boil, heat transfer slows and the pudding cooks unevenly and may turn out heavy.

Swap the apple

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

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

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