Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Dried Apple 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
Stew the dried apples until soft.
Mash the apples in a pan until fine.
Add the lemon peel, salt, and molasses or sugar to sweeten.
Bake and serve
Fill a pie crust with the apple mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + molassestop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together970 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Lemon + molassestop 36% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,377 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried apples
- Provide the main body of the filling once stewed and mashed into a soft, fruity mass.
- Molasses or sugar
- Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavour to the apple filling.
- Rich pie crust
- Holds the filling in shape and bakes into a crisp, golden base.
The step that matters
Mash the apples until fine. Stewed dried apples stay firm and lumpy if not mashed fully, giving an uneven, chewy filling. A fine mash gives a smooth, spreadable texture that sets evenly in the crust.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, molasses):
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Grapefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses. 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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