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Dessert

Apple Charlotte

A baked apple dessert with bread crumbs, butter, sugar, spices, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Apple 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a pie dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer bread crumbs in the dish, dot with butter, and sprinkle with spice.

  2. Add a layer of sugar, followed by a layer of apples.

  3. Repeat layers, finishing with a layer of crumbs on top.

  4. Pour the wine over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with a tin for the first 30 minutes to steam.

  2. Bake until golden brown, about 1.5 hours.

  3. Turn out of the dish and serve hot.

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.

  1. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the fruit base that softens and sweetens as it bakes.
White bread
Forms the soft, absorbent layers that hold the juices and set into a tender structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise and brown at the edges.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crumbs brown during baking.
Wine
Adds moisture and acidity that flavours the apples and softens the bread.

The step that matters

Covering with a tin for the first 30 minutes. Covering traps steam so the apples cook through and the bread softens before the top is exposed to direct heat. Removing the cover later lets the surface brown without drying the filling.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, bread, wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, bread, wine. 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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