Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Cobbler

A baked dessert of stewed apples topped with a whole wheat pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Apple Cobbler

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine stewed apples, nutmeg, sugar, caraway seed, and cinnamon in a pot; stew on the stove while preparing the crust.

Make the crust

  1. In a bowl, mix whole wheat flour, Franklin whole wheat flour, cottonseed oil, and salt; add warm water gradually to form a pie crust.

  2. Roll out the dough and line the sides and bottom of an oiled 8x14 inch pan.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the stewed apples to the crust and sprinkle with a little flour.

  2. Cover with the top crust, making holes for steam to escape.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least 1.5 hours.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Cinnamon + wheattop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Caraway + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Forms the structure of the crust and gives it a nutty, hearty texture.
Cottonseed oil
Adds fat that tenderizes the crust and helps it brown in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple filling and helps it caramelize slightly as it bakes.
Stewed apples
Provide the main filling, with moisture and tender fruit texture.

The step that matters

Cover with the top crust, making holes for steam to escape.. Steam builds up inside the filling as it bakes. Vents let it escape so the crust stays crisp rather than soggy or lifted.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, sugar, caraway, cinnamon, wheat, flour, cottonseed):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, sugar, caraway, cinnamon, wheat, flour, cottonseed. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes