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 ↓
Sliced Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Peel, quarter, and core the apples, then slice them thinly.
Line a pie pan with pie dough and fill it with the sliced apples.
Sprinkle the apples with ½ cup of granulated sugar, adjusting based on the sourness of the apples.
Scatter small pieces of butter over the apples and add the juice of ½ lemon, cinnamon, or nutmeg.
Sprinkle a little flour over the filling.
Top and bake
Roll out the remaining dough and cut it into 1‑inch wide strips.
Lay the strips across the pie about an inch apart, then lay additional strips crosswise.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown and the apples are tender.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Good sound apples
- Provide the main body and tender texture of the filling once baked.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices released by the apples so the filling holds together.
- Pie dough
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Adjusting the sugar to the apples. Apples vary in tartness, so tasting them first and adjusting the sugar keeps the filling balanced rather than too sour or too sweet.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, cinnamon, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, cinnamon, flour. 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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