Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
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 spiced water
Combine cloves, cinnamon, and water in a stewpan and boil for a few minutes.
Strain and cool the liquid.
Assemble the pie
Peel and quarter the apples, removing the cores, then arrange them evenly in a dish.
Sprinkle sugar and grated lemon rind over the apples.
Pour the cooled spiced water on top.
Cover the rim of the dish with puff pastry, then seal the apples with more pastry.
Bake and serve
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes, until the apples are tender.
Optionally squeeze in lemon juice or add a few barberries or quince before serving.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Clove + appletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the main body of the filling, softening as they bake until tender.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the fruit.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, golden crust that encloses the apples.
- Grated lemon rind
- Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity to the filling.
The step that matters
Seal the apples with pastry. The pastry must fully enclose the filling so the steam and spiced liquid stay in the dish and the apples cook through rather than drying out.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, cinnamon, apple, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Quincefits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, apple, sugar. 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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