Name: Apple Tart
Ingredients: 2 dozen russet apples; lemon peel (free from pith); 6 cloves; a little grated nutmeg; ½ pound powdered sugar; ½ pound puff pastry

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 Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

Peel and cut the apples into wedges.
Intermix the apple wedges with strips of lemon peel, cloves, and nutmeg.
Build the apples into a dome shape in the dish.
Sprinkle the apples with powdered sugar.

Cover and bake

Roll out the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick and cover the apples.
Trim and decorate the edges of the pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour until lightly browned.

Serve

Serve when cold.

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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Russet apples: Provide the bulk of the filling, softening as they bake into a tender layer.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize slightly on the surface.
Puff pastry: Forms the flaky, layered crust that encloses the apples.
Cloves: Add warm, aromatic spice flavor to the apples.
Lemon peel: Adds bright aromatic oil that cuts the sweetness of the apples.