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Dessert

Apple Pie

A puff pastry apple pie with lemon, spices, and a custard topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Pie

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Prepare a puff pastry crust and place it around the edge of a pie dish.

  3. Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then layer them in the pie dish.

Flavor the filling

  1. Sprinkle half the sugar over the apples, add minced lemon peel, and squeeze in some lemon juice.

  2. Scatter a few cloves over the apples, then layer the remaining apples and sugar, adding more lemon juice.

  3. Boil the apple peels and cores in water with a blade of mace until flavored, then strain and sweeten the liquid.

  4. Reduce the strained liquid by boiling until thick, then pour it into the pie.

Make the custard and bake

  1. While the pie bakes, beat the egg yolks with cream, nutmeg, and sugar over low heat until near boiling.

  2. Cover the pie with the crust and bake in the oven.

  3. Remove the pie from the oven, take off the lid, and pour the egg mixture inside.

  4. Cut the crust into small triangles and place them on top of the pie.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the bulk of the filling and soften into a tender, juicy layer as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices that form the syrupy filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture into a smooth, rich custard when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a silky, soft texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps keep the fruit from browning.
Puff pastry crust
Provides a flaky, buttery structure that encloses the filling.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolk proteins set around 65 to 70°C and scramble if heated too fast. Cooking over low heat while stirring keeps the custard smooth and thick instead of grainy.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, clove, mace, nutmeg, egg, cream):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, mace, nutmeg, egg, cream. 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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