Why it works: Orange and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare a puff pastry crust and line the sides and bottom of a pie dish.
Peel and slice the apples, then stew them until soft.
Layer half of the stewed apples in the pie crust and sprinkle with half of the sugar.
Add the chopped orange peel and drizzle with orange juice, then add a few cloves.
Top with the remaining apples and sugar, adjusting sweetness to taste.
Boil the apple peelings and cores with a blade of mace in water.
Strain the liquid and boil it with a little sugar until thickened.
Pour the syrup into the pie, cover with the upper crust, and bake.
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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Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,987 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + macetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together865 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, orange, clove):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, orange, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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