Name: Baked Sweet Apples
Ingredients: 6 medium apples; ¼ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ cup water

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 ↓

Baked Sweet Apples

Ingredients

6 medium apples
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup water

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Core the apples and place them in a baking dish.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon inside and on top of the apples.
Pour water into the dish around the apples.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30-40 minutes until tender.
Serve warm.

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).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Apples: Soften during baking and provide the main body and flavor of the dish.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apple surfaces caramelize slightly as they bake.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma that complements the baked apple flavor.
Water: Creates steam in the dish, keeping the apples moist while they bake.