Apple Pie

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together2,774 recipes

   Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

2. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together8,150 recipes

   Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together16,478 recipes

   Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together53,532 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, clove, sugar):

1. Quincefits better
2. Pearfits better
3. Vanillafits better
4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, clove, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.