Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Apple Pot 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.
Prepare and cook
In a pot, combine the apples and boiling water.
Add the sugar and stir to combine.
Prepare a light dough by mixing flour, butter, baking soda, and salt.
Cut the dough into pieces the size of a teacup.
Place the dough pieces around the sides of the pot and some in the center.
Cook the pot on high heat initially, then reduce the heat to prevent burning.
Cook for about 45 minutes until done.
Bake and serve
Transfer the partially cooked apples to a deep baking dish.
Cover the apples with the remaining dough pieces.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the crust is light brown.
Cover with a plate to prevent the crust from hardening too much.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Form the filling, softening as they cook to give the pie its body.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the dough tender and rich.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps the filling and crust brown.
- Baking soda
- Helps the dough rise lightly and promotes browning of the crust.
The step that matters
Reduce the heat after the initial high heat. Sugar and fruit juices scorch easily on direct heat. Lowering the heat lets the apples cook through gently without burning on the bottom of the pot.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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.
You might also like
Apple Soup33 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.