Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Nice Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Line your pie dish with the crust.
Cut the apples into eighths and fill the dish.
Cover lightly with a top crust.
Bake
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
Add the filling and finish
While hot, remove the top crust.
Add sugar, nutmeg, and a little butter to the apples.
Stir together and spread evenly in the pie.
Replace the top crust.
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 + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Provide the bulk of the filling and release juices that moisten the pie as it bakes.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apple juices thicken and brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the filling.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the apples.
The step that matters
Add the sugar, nutmeg, and butter while the apples are hot. Heat from the apples helps the sugar dissolve and the butter melt into the juices, so the seasoning spreads evenly through the filling instead of pooling in one spot.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, 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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