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 ↓
Apple -‘charlotte’, German Fashion
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.
Make the apple marmalade
Peel and mince the apples.
Place them in a stewpan with water, cover, and boil until the liquid reduces.
Sweeten the apples, add cinnamon and lemon zest, and boil while stirring until it becomes a marmalade.
Remove from heat, discard the zest and cinnamon, and mix in currants and preserved cédrat.
Assemble and bake
Butter a charlotte mold and line it with bread crumbs.
Fill the mold with the warm apple mixture and cover with a round slice of bread.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 minutes until the bread is nicely colored.
Turn the charlotte out onto a dish and serve.
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.
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling, which cooks down into a soft, sweet marmalade.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps thicken the mixture into a marmalade as it reduces.
- Currants
- Add small bursts of sweetness and chewy texture to the soft apple filling.
- Preserved cédrat
- Adds candied citrus sweetness and aroma that contrasts with the apples.
- Bread
- Forms a golden, crisp shell around the filling as it bakes.
The step that matters
Reducing the apple mixture to a marmalade. If the apples are not cooked down enough, they release excess moisture into the mold, leaving a soggy filling and a pale, soft crust. Stirring while boiling keeps the sugar and pectin from scorching and helps the mixture thicken evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon, lemon, butter, bread):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon, lemon, butter, bread. 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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