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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare a pie crust and line your pie dish with it.
Peel and quarter the tart apples.
Arrange the apple quarters in rows in the pie dish.
Assemble and bake
Sprinkle sugar over the apples to taste.
Add a few small pieces of butter on top of the apples.
Season with nutmeg or cinnamon to taste.
Bake without an upper crust until the apples are tender.
Serve warm.
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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Butter + nutmegtop 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
- Tart apples
- Provide the fruit filling that softens and becomes tender as the pie bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices from the apples as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the filling taste rounded.
- Pie crust
- Forms the base that holds the filling and browns as the pie bakes.
- Nutmeg or cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma and spice that complements the sweetness of the apples.
The step that matters
Bake without an upper crust until the apples are tender. Apples vary in firmness and juiciness, so the filling must cook until tender; an underbaked filling stays firm and watery, while the crust needs enough heat to set and brown.
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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