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Dessert

Centennial Apple Pie

A baked apple pie with a puff pastry crust and a spiced apple filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Centennial 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 the filling

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Place the apples in a stew pan with a little water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon rind.

  3. Stew over low heat until the apples are soft.

  4. Sweeten the apples to taste and pass them through a fine sieve.

  5. Add the egg yolks, egg white, butter, grated nutmeg, lemon peel, and lemon juice to the apple mixture and beat well.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry.

  2. Fill it with the apple mixture.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 their pectin helps it set as it cooks and cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the filling, giving it a custard-like richness as they set during baking.
Egg white
Adds structure and helps the filling set firmly when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and balances the acidity of the lemon.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Passing the apples through a fine sieve before adding the eggs. Sieving makes the apple purée smooth so the egg yolks and white blend in evenly. Adding eggs to lumpy or very hot apple can scramble them, leaving a grainy texture.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, 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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