Name: Apple Pie
Ingredients: 4 apples, peeled, cored, and quartered; 2 quince, quartered; ½ cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ cup water; 1 pie crust (short paste or puff)

Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Apple Pie

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place a few cloves, chopped lemon peel, and a little mace at the bottom of a pie dish.
Layer half of the apples in the dish, followed by some brown sugar and two quarters of quince.
Add the remaining apples and two or three more pieces of quince on top.
Cover with sugar, dot with butter, and add a little water.

Bake and finish

Cover with the pie crust and bake in the oven.
Soak the apples to absorb the redness of the quince.
If desired, after baking, heat the yolks of 3 eggs with ½ cup of thick cream and pour over the apples.

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.

Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together506 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Quince + buttertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together218 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the bulk of the filling and a tart flavour that holds shape when baked.
Quince: Adds aroma and firm texture, and its natural pectin helps the filling set.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and caramelizes slightly during baking for depth of flavour.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a rounder, mellower flavour.
Pie crust: Forms the structure that encloses the filling and browns to a crisp, golden finish.