Name: Apple Tart
Ingredients: 2 dozen russet apples; lemon peel (free from pith); 6 cloves; grated nutmeg; ½ pound powdered sugar; ½ pound puff pastry

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 Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

Peel and slice the apples.
Intermingle the apple slices with lemon peel, cloves, and nutmeg in a dish.
Form the apples into a dome shape in the center of the dish.
Sprinkle the apples with powdered sugar.

Assemble the tart

Roll out the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick and create a band for the rim of the dish.
Cover the dish with the remaining pastry and seal the edges.

Bake and serve

Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about an hour until lightly browned.
Serve when cold.

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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Russet apples: Provide the bulk of the filling, cooking down into a soft, tender fruit layer.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples brown lightly in the oven.
Puff pastry: Forms a flaky, crisp crust that encloses and seals the filling.
Nutmeg: Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the apples.