Name: Apple Tart, No. 2
Ingredients: 4 apples, prepared; puff pastry, ¼ inch thick; 1 beaten egg; flour, for dusting; grated sugar, for serving

Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Apple Tart, No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out the puff pastry and cut it to fit the size of your dish.
Cut a 4-inch circle from the center of the pastry and set it aside.
Line the dish with the pastry, cutting it neatly around the edge.

Assemble

Fill the lined dish with the prepared apples, heaping them in the center.
Roll out the leftover pastry into small straws and lay them over the apples in a crisscross pattern.
Brush the edge of the pastry with the beaten egg and place the pastry cover on top.
Nick the edges and draw small flowers on the top.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.
Serve with a sprinkle of grated sugar.

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.

Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple + flourtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,140 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 filling, softening and releasing juices as they bake.
Puff pastry: Forms the flaky, layered crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Beaten egg: Brushed on the edge to glaze and help the pastry cover seal and brown.