Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Dried Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the dried apples until soft.
Stew the apples until they can pass through a colander.
Season with lemon juice and sugar to taste.
Add 1 beaten egg for every 2 pies and 1 teaspoon of butter for each pie.
Mix well and bake with 2 pie crusts.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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 + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried apples
- Form the main filling once softened and stewed into a smooth, spoonable pulp.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the filling and helps it set as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the filling.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg, butter, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg, butter, 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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