Why it works: Apple and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,207 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
A Nice 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.
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine the apples and water. Stew until soft, then cool in a dish.
While the apples are hot, add butter, mace, lemon zest, wine, and sugar. Let cool completely.
Assemble and bake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line two pie plates with puff pastry crust.
Fill the crusts with the cooled apple mixture and cover with a top crust.
Bake until the crust is 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 + winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,207 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Break down into a soft filling that gives the pie its body and flavor.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the cooked apple filling.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and aromatic flavor that brightens the sweet apples.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky crust that bakes golden and encloses the filling.
The step that matters
Let the filling cool completely before assembling. Hot filling melts the butter in the pastry and softens its layers, so the crust turns greasy and fails to puff. Cooling first keeps the pastry flaky.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, lemon, wine, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, lemon, wine, sugar. 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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