Why it works: Clove and apple 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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the apples
Cook the apples with sugar and cloves or lemon until very soft.
Set aside to cool.
Make the pastry
In a bowl, rub the butter and flour together until well combined.
Add the beaten egg and cream to the mixture to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the paste and divide it in two.
Assemble and bake
Grease a sandwich tin and line it with one half of the paste.
Fill the lined tin with the cooked apples, then cover with the other half of the paste.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.
Let cool slightly before turning out and dusting with icing sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Clove + appletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Self-raising flour
- Forms the structure of the paste and sets as the cake bakes.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
- Egg
- Binds the paste together and adds structure as it sets.
- Apples
- Provide moisture and tartness as the filling for the cake.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them cook down to a soft filling.
The step that matters
Cooking the apples until very soft. Apples that are still firm release less juice and stay crunchy inside the cake, while a filling cooked until very soft becomes smooth and spreadable. Cooking them first also drives off excess moisture so the pastry does not turn soggy.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, apple, flour, butter, egg, cream):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, apple, flour, butter, egg, cream. 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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