Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Assemble
Line a pie pan with thin pastry.
Sprinkle the bottom with sugar.
Layer the sliced apples on top.
Sprinkle more sugar and add bits of butter.
Cover with pastry strips or a full top crust.
Sprinkle the top with sugar and butter.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the apples are tender and the crust is 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 + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Pastry
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling, softening as they bake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apples release juices that caramelise lightly.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, melting over the apples to carry flavour.
The step that matters
Slicing the apples very thin. Thin slices cook through at the same rate as the pastry, so the apples become tender before the crust over-browns. Thick slices can stay firm or leave air gaps that make the pie collapse when cut.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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