Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Dried Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the apples overnight in enough water to cover them.
In the morning, stew the apples until soft and let them cool.
Fill a pie plate lined with crust with the cooled apples.
Sprinkle the sugar over the apples, add bits of butter, and lemon slices.
Alternatively, mash the apples and mix in sugar, butter, and nutmeg or cinnamon.
Bake with an upper crust or lattice made from thin strips of dough.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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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 + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nutmeg
The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Gingerfits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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