Name: Apple Pie
Ingredients: light, tart apples (such as Greenings); 1 cup sugar; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; 2 tablespoons water; flour (for dusting); plain or puff pastry (for lining the pie dish); pulverized sugar (for topping)

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel, quarter, and core the apples, slicing each one directly into the pie dish until full.
In a bowl, combine the sliced apples with sugar and cinnamon, stirring until evenly coated.
Dust the pie dish with flour.
Line the pie dish with pastry.

Assemble and bake

Add the apple mixture to the lined dish.
Sprinkle the apple mixture with water.
Cover the pie with pastry as desired.
Bake for 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

Once cooled, sprinkle the top with pulverized sugar.
Serve.

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 + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Light, tart apples: Provide the bulk of the filling and a tart flavor that balances the sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and draws moisture out of the apples to form syrup.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the apples.
Pastry: Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.