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 ↓
Tart, Apple and Date
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 filling
Peel, core, and cut the apples.
Melt the butter in a pan.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
Add the mixture to the apples with 2 tablespoons of water.
Cover the pan and stew slowly until the apples are fully cooked.
Turn out the mixture.
Let it cool.
Make the pastry
Grease a baking dish.
Mix the flour, baking powder, and remaining cinnamon.
Rub the butter into the dry mixture until crumbly.
Mix to a paste with cold water.
Bake and serve
Line the baking dish with the pastry.
Fill the pastry with the apple and date mixture.
Cover the pastry.
Bake for 35 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
Cool the tart.
Dust with icing sugar moistened with egg white.
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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Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together283 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
-
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + datestop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together119 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon and sugar 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
- Cooking apples
- Cook down to a soft, moist filling that forms the body of the tart.
- Dates
- Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy, moist texture to the filling.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the pastry that holds the filling.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the pastry, giving it a lighter, more open crumb.
- Demerara sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them soften and form a syrupy filling.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to create a crumbly, tender pastry texture.
The step that matters
Stew the apples until fully cooked. Apples release a lot of water as they cook. If the filling is not cooked down fully, it stays wet and can soften the pastry and make the tart soggy when baked.
Swap the dates
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, flour, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits better
- Datesthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, flour, sugar, 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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