Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Make 1 lb of puff pastry.
Place a border around the edge of a pie dish.
Pare, core, and slice the apples.
Fill the pie dish with the sliced apples.
Sweeten the apples with sugar, add lemon peel, lemon juice, and water.
Cover with pastry.
Trim the edges.
Bake and glaze
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Whisk the egg white to a froth.
Brush the froth over the pie.
Sprinkle sifted sugar on top.
Add a few drops of water.
Return the pie to the oven.
Watch carefully to prevent burning.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, crisp crust that encloses the apples.
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling, softening as they bake.
- Moist sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise slightly at the edges.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavour and balances the sugar.
- Egg white
- Brushed on as a froth, it helps the top brown and gives a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Watching the bake at the end. Sugar sprinkled on the pastry caramelises quickly once the oven is hot again, so it can burn before the pastry is fully browned. Checking closely lets you pull the tart at the right colour.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg. 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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