Name: Spiced Apple Tarts
Ingredients: 4 large apples; ½ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon powdered mace; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; Juice of 1 lemon; Zest of 1 lemon; 1 prepared pie crust

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 ↓

Spiced Apple Tarts

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.

Prepare the filling

Stew or bake the apples until soft, then pass them through a sieve.
Sweeten the apples and add mace and cinnamon to taste.
Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the grated lemon peel.

Bake the tarts

Line the tart pans with the pie crust and fill with the apple mixture.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the crust is golden.

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Apples: Cooked and sieved, they form the soft, smooth body of the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the apple purée and balances the tartness of the fruit.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavour and keeps it from tasting flat.
Pie crust: Forms the pastry case that holds the filling and browns in the oven.