Name: Apple Pte
Ingredients: Apples; Water; Sugar; Bruised cinnamon; Lemon peel; Lemon juice or cider; Butter (optional)

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 Pte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

Pare and core the apples, then wipe the outside clean.
Boil the cores and peels with a little water until flavorful, then strain.
Add sugar and bruised cinnamon to the strained liquid and simmer again.

Assemble and bake

Place a layer of apples in a dish with pastry around the edge.
Sprinkle half the sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice or cider over the apples.
If the apples are bland, add the remaining apples, sugar, and the boiled liquid.
Cover with pastry and bake until golden.
Serve hot with butter, or flavor with quince marmalade, orange paste, or cloves.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Apples: Form the bulk of the filling, providing the fruit texture and tartness of the pie.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps draw out and balance the apple flavor.
Lemon juice or cider: Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps keep it fresh-tasting.
Butter: Adds richness and fat to the finished pie when served with it.