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 ↓
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Pare, core, and quarter the apples. If large, cut the quarters in half.
Assemble the pie
Line a pie plate with the bottom crust and fill it with the apples.
Sprinkle the apples liberally with sugar, add butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg.
Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water.
Cover with the top crust, wet the edges of the bottom crust to seal, and trim excess crust.
Bake and serve
Bake until the crust is light brown and the apples are soft, testing through slits in the crust.
Serve cold, optionally with white sugar or sweet cream.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Provide the main filling, softening during baking to become tender and flavourful.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and draws out juices that combine with the apples.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the filling, contributing flavour as it melts.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Testing the apples for doneness. Apples must be soft all the way through, but the crust can brown before they are ready. Testing through the slits checks the filling's tenderness without relying on crust colour alone.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cinnamon. 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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