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Dessert

Apple Pie

Apple pie filled with stewed apples, cinnamon, cloves, lemon, and a custard mixture baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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 the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Place the apples in a stewpan with a little water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon rind.

  3. Stew over low heat until the apples are soft.

Make the filling

  1. Sweeten to taste, then pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  2. Add the egg yolks, egg white, butter, grated nutmeg, grated lemon peel, and lemon juice; mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry, fill it with the apple mixture, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 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
Provide the main body and flavor of the filling as they soften during stewing.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the filling as it sets in the oven.
Egg white
Adds structure and helps the filling set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the apples and lemon.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky crust that holds the filling in the pie dish.

The step that matters

Pass the apple mixture through a fine sieve before adding the eggs. Sieving after stewing makes the filling smooth and removes lumps or skins. Adding the eggs and butter to a hot, very wet mixture can cause curdling, so the filling should be mixed well and kept evenly combined.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg. 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.

More apple pie recipes

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