Name: Gepman Apple Tart
Ingredients: 1 lb apples; 1 lemon, grated rind and juice; 2 oz currants; 2 oz candied peels; 3 oz sugar; pastry for lining the dish

Why it works: Apple and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,918 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Gepman Apple Tart

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a flat dish with pastry and decorate the edges.
Peel, core, and slice the apples.

Make the filling

Cook the apples gently for 10 minutes.
Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, currants, and chopped candied peels.
Place the apple mixture in the center of the pastry.

Bake

Bake for 20 minutes.

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 + 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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + curranttop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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 main bulk and soft, moist texture of the tart filling.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize slightly as they bake.
Lemon: Lemon juice adds acidity that brightens the flavor, and the rind adds aroma.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture within the filling.
Candied peels: Add sweet, citrusy flavor and chewy texture to the filling.