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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare a puff pastry crust around the edge of your dish.
Pare and quarter the apples, removing the cores.
Fill the pie
Layer half the apples in the dish and sprinkle with half the sugar.
Finely mince a little lemon peel and spread it over the apples.
Squeeze some lemon juice over the apples.
Scatter a few cloves on top.
Add the remaining apples and sugar, sweetening to taste.
Make the syrup
Boil the apple peels and cores in water with a blade of mace until flavorful.
Strain the liquid and boil it with a little sugar until reduced.
Bake and finish
Pour the syrup into the pie, cover with the upper crust, and bake.
Optionally, butter the pie when it comes out or prepare a cream mixture with beaten egg yolks, cream, and nutmeg, stirring until it begins to boil, then pour over the pie.
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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Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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 + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provide the bulk of the filling and tartness that holds the pie's flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juices as the apples cook.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks in the optional cream mixture add richness and help it set when heated.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture to the optional cream topping.
The step that matters
Stirring the cream mixture until it begins to boil. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the cream mixture should be stirred constantly and only brought to the point of just beginning to boil before it is poured over the pie.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, clove, mace, cream, egg, nutmeg):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, mace, cream, egg, 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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