Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
A Charlotte
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
Cut the bread into slices nearly ½ inch thick and butter both sides thickly.
Butter a deep dish or pan and arrange the bread slices to cover the bottom and sides.
Reserve a few slices to cover the top and soak them in custard until saturated.
Fill and bake
Fill the dish with chopped apples or other fruit, adding sugar and cloves if desired.
Cover the top with the soaked bread slices, dot with butter, and place a plate with a weight on top.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done, then turn out of the mold.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,129 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Forms the structure of the dish, holding its shape as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread brown and crisp at the edges.
- Apples
- Provide the main fruit filling, adding moisture and tart flavor.
- Custard
- Soaks into the bread and sets during baking, binding the layers together.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit filling and helps it caramelize slightly as it bakes.
The step that matters
Soaking the top slices in custard. Bread that is only lightly moistened stays dry and pale, while fully saturated slices soften and set into the custard. Under-soaked slices can leave dry patches on the finished dessert.
Swap the clove
The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, apple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, apple, 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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