Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Apple Pie with Under Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pie
Line a pie plate with pastry.
Prepare the apples by slicing them.
Fill the plate with apples, mounding the center slightly.
Sprinkle with sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, or lemon juice.
Dot the filling with small pieces of butter.
Close and bake
Moisten the edge of the pastry with cold water.
Score the upper crust, place it over the filling, and press the edges down.
Bake in a hot oven at 450°F (230°C) for about 40 minutes, reducing the temperature slightly during the last 10 minutes.
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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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Pastry for pie crust
- Forms the container that holds the filling and browns during baking.
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling and its fruity flavor and moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw juices out of the apples to form a syrup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the filling taste rounded.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and helps it keep its taste.
The step that matters
Scoring and sealing the top crust. Cuts in the upper crust let steam escape so the filling does not build pressure and burst through, and pressing the edges with moistened pastry seals the juices inside the pie.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon, 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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