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 Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Peel, core, and quarter the apples.
Boil the cores and peels in water with sugar; strain the liquid and add more sugar to taste.
Grate the lemon zest over the apples and squeeze in the lemon juice.
Mix in the cloves and butter, and add wine if desired.
Bake
Cover the mixture with puff pastry and bake until golden.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Apple + winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,207 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 into a tender, moist filling when baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw moisture from the apples to form a syrup.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and bright aroma, and its juice helps keep the apples from browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, rounded flavor.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, golden crust that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until golden. Baking long enough lets the pastry brown and cook through, while the apples soften. Underbaked pastry stays pale and doughy, and a filling that is too wet can make the base soggy.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, clove, butter, wine):
- Chestnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, clove, butter, 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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