Why it works: Clove and quince match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 164 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
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).
Pare, core, and cut the apples into quarters.
Place the apple quarters in a pie dish, adding the cloves.
Assemble and bake
In a mortar, rub together the lemon peel and sugar, then mix in quince jam if desired.
Cover the apples with the sugar mixture and puff pastry.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown.
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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Clove + quincetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together164 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together336 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + quincetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,444 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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, softening as they bake and releasing juices that form the sauce.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and draws moisture from the apples, helping form a syrup as they cook.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, golden crust that encloses and browns over the filling.
- Quince jam
- Adds concentrated fruit flavor and pectin that helps thicken the filling's juices.
The step that matters
Covering the apples with the sugar mixture and pastry. The pastry must seal well so the apple juices and sugar syrup bake down inside rather than leaking out and scorching in the dish.
Swap the quince
The recipe marks quince as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, clove, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
- Quincethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, clove, sugar. 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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