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Dessert

Apple Pie

Apple pie made with puff pastry crust, apples, sugar, lemon, cloves, mace, egg yolk cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Prepare a puff-paste crust and place it around the edge of a pie dish.

  3. Peel, quarter, and core the apples.

Assemble the filling

  1. Layer half of the apples in the dish and sprinkle with half of the sugar.

  2. Finely mince lemon peel and spread it over the apples and sugar.

  3. Squeeze in a little lemon juice, then add a few cloves.

  4. Layer the remaining apples and sugar, adding another squeeze of lemon juice.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the apple parings and cores in water with a blade of mace until flavored.

  2. Strain the mixture, add a little sugar, and boil until reduced.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the reduced liquid into the pie, cover with the crust, and bake.

  2. For the topping, beat the yolks of 2 eggs with ½ pint of cream, nutmeg, and sugar over low heat until near boiling.

  3. Remove the pie lid and pour the egg mixture into the pie.

  4. Cut the crust into small pieces and place them on top of the pie.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the main body of the filling and release juices that soften during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps draw moisture from the apples into a syrup.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream topping as they set with gentle heat.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the topping a smooth, custard-like texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps keep the fruit fresh-tasting.
Puff-paste crust
Provides a flaky, buttery structure that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Heating the egg and cream topping. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheating causes them to curdle and turn grainy. Heat gently over low flame and stop as it nears boiling.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, clove, mace, egg, cream, nutmeg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, mace, egg, cream, nutmeg. 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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