Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Line a pie pan with the crust.
Sprinkle the crust with sugar and a little flour.
Fill and assemble
Fill the crust with sliced apples.
Cover the apples with sugar and a sprinkle of flour.
Dot the top with bits of butter.
Add water if the apples are not very juicy.
Flavor with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired.
Place the top crust on and bake.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Sliced apples
- Form the filling that cooks down into the body of the pie.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws juices out of the apples to form a syrup.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices released by the apples so the filling sets rather than runs.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the apples during baking.
The step that matters
Add water if the apples are not very juicy. Too little liquid can leave the flour dry and the filling pasty, while the right amount lets the flour thicken evenly into a sliceable filling.
“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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