Name: Sweet Apple Pie
Ingredients: 6 good apples; 1 cup sugar; 3 tablespoons melted butter; 4 eggs; juice of 1 lemon; a handful of dried currants; a little spice; pastry for the pie crust; brandy (optional)

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sweet 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

Grate the apples and mix with sugar, melted butter, eggs, lemon juice, currants, and spice.

Assemble and bake

Line a pie plate with pastry, fill with the apple mixture, and cover with an upper crust.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 tender, fruity body once baked.
Eggs: Bind the grated apple mixture and help it set as the pie bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the apples.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, egg, currant, brandy):

Apricotfits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, egg, currant, brandy. 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.