Name: Charlotte Des Pommes d’Api —
Ingredients: 24 apples, cleaned and cut into small quarters; 4 ounces (½ cup) butter; 4 ounces (½ cup) sugar; Rind of 1 orange or Seville orange; 1 pot of fine cherries, drained from syrup; Crumb of a day-old loaf of bread; Apricot jam, apple jelly, or currant jelly for glazing

Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Des Pommes d’Api —

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

24 apples, cleaned and cut into small quarters
4 ounces (½ cup) butter
4 ounces (½ cup) sugar
Rind of 1 orange or Seville orange
1 pot of fine cherries, drained from syrup
Crumb of a day-old loaf of bread
Apricot jam, apple jelly, or currant jelly for glazing

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

In a large stew-pan, sauté the apples with butter and sugar, adding the orange rind.
Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until apples are tender but whole.

Prepare the bread

Cut the bread into columns using a root cutter.
Dip the bread columns in melted butter.

Assemble and bake

Arrange the buttered bread in a buttered mold to cover the bottom and sides.
Pour the cooked apples into the mold and cover with a slice of buttered bread.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes, checking for a light brown color.
Once baked, turn out onto a dish and glaze with apricot jam or jelly.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Orange + apricottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together703 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Form the soft filling that is cooked until tender but still holding its shape.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and coats the bread so it browns and crisps in the oven.
Bread: Forms the structural shell that holds the apple filling in its mold shape.
Sugar: Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise lightly during cooking.

The step that matters

Cooking the apples until tender but whole. Over-cooking breaks the apples into a purée, which makes the filling watery and unable to hold its shape when turned out of the mold. Gentle low heat with occasional stirring softens the fruit while keeping the pieces intact.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, syrup, bread, apricot):

Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Peachfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, syrup, bread, apricot. 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.