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 the filling
Combine the apples and boiling water in a pot.
Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and strain it over the apples.
Make the dough
Prepare a light dough by mixing flour, butter, and salt until crumbly.
Cut the dough into pieces the size of a teacup.
Cook and bake
Place the dough pieces around the sides of the pot and in the center if needed.
Cook the apples quickly at first, then reduce the heat to prevent burning.
After about 45 minutes, transfer the mixture to a deep baking dish.
Cover the top with remaining dough pieces and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
When the crust is light brown, cover with a plate to prevent it from hardening.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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 + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Provide the bulk of the filling and soften into a tender, fruity base as they cook.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize and develop flavor as they cook.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the dough, which holds the pieces together as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and helping it brown.
The step that matters
Reduce the heat after the apples start cooking. Apples cooked on high heat can scorch on the bottom of the pot before they soften through. Lowering the heat after the initial quick cook lets them turn tender evenly while the sugar syrup thickens without burning.
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.
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