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 ↓
Sliced-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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie pan with the crust and sprinkle the bottom with sugar.
Fill the crust with the thinly sliced apples.
Assemble and bake
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the apples, then add the butter and water.
Dredge a little flour over the filling, cover with the top crust, and bake for 30 to 45 minutes.
Alternatively, bake the pie with the top crust, then remove it, add sugar, butter, and seasoning, replace the crust, and serve warm.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Tart apples
- Provide the main filling, softening as they bake while keeping their tartness against the sugar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw moisture from the apples to form the filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the filling and helps carry flavor through the baked apples.
- Flour
- Lightly dusted over the filling to help thicken the juices as the pie bakes.
The step that matters
Slice the apples very thin and fill evenly. Thin, even slices cook through at the same rate as the crust browns, so the apples soften without leaving firm pieces or a watery gap. Uneven slices can leave some apples raw and others mushy.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter, 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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