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Dessert

Apple Pie

Apple pie made with apples, sugar, lemon, cloves, butter, optional wine, covered in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples.

  2. Boil the cores and peels in sugar and water, then strain the liquid and add more sugar to taste.

  3. Grate the lemon zest over the apples and squeeze in the lemon juice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix in the cloves and the butter.

  2. If desired, add the wine.

  3. Cover the mixture with puff pastry and bake until golden.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main filling bulk and tender, fruity body once baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juices that form the syrup.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and gives a smooth mouthfeel.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, golden top crust that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Puff pastry relies on layers of fat and steam to rise and flake. Baking until golden ensures the crust is fully set and browned, and the apples are cooked through beneath it.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, clove, butter, wine. 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.

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