Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Hot 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel, core, and slice the apples.
In a saucepan, combine apples, sugar, lemon zest, and juice. Add cider if needed.
Simmer the mixture until the apples soften.
Assemble and bake
Place a pie crust in a dish and fill it with the apple mixture.
Cover with another pie crust and seal the edges.
Cut a few slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter if desired.
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.
-
Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 and soften during simmering to form the pie's body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices that thicken into a syrupy filling.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the apples.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Cut slits in the top crust. Vents let steam escape while baking. Without them, trapped steam can build pressure, lift or split the top crust, and make the filling bubble out unevenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cider, butter):
- Pearfits better
- Plumfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cider, 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.
More apple pie recipes
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.