Why it works: Orange and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange or Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a gentle oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the fruit
Rub the oranges or lemons with salt and soak them in water with a handful of salt for two days, changing the water daily for a fortnight.
Boil the pippins in 1 pint of water until they break down.
Make the filling
Combine the boiled pippin liquid with the oranges or lemons, adding half the pulp of the pippins and 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture for 15 minutes, then add 2 tablespoons of orange or lemon juice.
Bake and serve
Roll out the puff pastry thinly and line shallow patty pans.
Brush the pastry with melted butter and sprinkle with double refined sugar.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
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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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Oranges or lemons
- Supply the main citrus flavour and the aromatic peel and pulp for the filling.
- Pippins (apples)
- Their pulp thickens the boiled filling and adds body to the pie.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps it set to a thick, spreadable texture.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp shell that holds the filling.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavour on the pastry.
The step that matters
Boil the filling for 15 minutes. Boiling concentrates the mixture and lets the apple pectin and sugar thicken it. Too short a boil leaves the filling runny, which soaks the pastry and makes slicing difficult.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter. 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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