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 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).
Pare, 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 and line it with the pastry.
Fill and bake
Add the apple mixture to the lined dish and sprinkle with water.
Cover the pie with pastry as desired and bake for 45 minutes.
Once cooled, sprinkle the top with pulverized sugar and serve.
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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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 fruit filling, whose tartness balances the sweet sugar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices that form the filling.
- Ground cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma that complements the cooked apples.
- Pastry
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Slicing the apples until the dish is full. Apples shrink as they cook and release juice, so a loosely packed dish can leave gaps and a collapsed top. Packing them firmly gives a fuller, more stable pie.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, flour. 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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