Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Hot 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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Layer half of the apples in a pie dish.
Sprinkle with half the sugar, lemon juice, and water or cider.
Add the remaining apples and sugar, then cover with the pie crust.
Cut a few slits in the crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30-40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.
Serve hot with butter if desired.
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 + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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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 + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the bulk and tart flavor that forms the pie's filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices from the apples.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps keep the apples from browning.
- Pie crust
- Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form the outer structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the finished pie when served.
The step that matters
Cut slits in the crust. Slits let steam escape while baking; without them, trapped steam can build pressure, lifting or soggying the crust and making the juices boil over.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cider, butter):
- Pearfits better
- Plumfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cider, butter. 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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