Name: Baked Apples
Ingredients: 6 Newtown apples; 2 ounces granulated sugar; ¼ teaspoon cinnamon; ½ pint cold water

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Baked Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

6 Newtown apples
2 ounces granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
½ pint cold water

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

Core the apples using an apple corer and place them in a tin pan.
In a bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon, then fill the holes in the apples with this mixture.

Bake and serve

Add the cold water to the pan and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and place the apples on a dessert dish.
Pour the remaining juice from the pan over the apples.
Serve hot or cold.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Newtown apples: Form the body of the dish; their flesh softens into a tender, spoonable texture when baked.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps form a syrupy juice in the pan as the apples bake.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma that complements the baked apple flavour.