Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pare and core the apples and quince.
Wipe the outside of the apples and quince.
Boil the cores and quince with a little water until flavorful.
Strain the liquid.
Make the syrup
Add sugar and bruised cinnamon to the strained liquid. Simmer again.
Assemble and bake
Place the apples in a dish with pastry around the edge.
Sprinkle half the sugar and lemon peel over the first layer of apples.
Squeeze lemon juice. Add cider.
If the apples are lacking flavor, add the remaining apples, sugar, and boiled liquid.
Cover with pastry.
Bake until golden.
Add butter on top if serving hot.
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 + quincetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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 and provide the main texture and fruity flavor.
- Quince
- Adds aroma and flavor to the filling and its cores and flesh give the boiled liquid its character.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juices that form the syrup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the apples and balances sweetness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that moistens the filling when served hot.
The step that matters
Bake until golden. Apples need enough time in the oven for their starches and cell walls to soften fully, while the pastry browns. Underbaking leaves firm fruit and a raw crust, and overbaking can dry the filling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, quince, sugar, cinnamon, cider, butter):
- Pearfits better
- Plumfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, quince, sugar, cinnamon, cider, butter. 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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