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Dessert

Pan Dowdy

Pan Dowdy is a baked apple dish with a sweet crust topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Pan Dowdy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a 3-quart baking dish.

  3. Place the quartered apples in the dish and stir in the brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, allspice, and mace.

Bake

  1. Cover the apple mixture with the crust.

  2. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender.

Finish

  1. Remove the crust, break it into small pieces, and mix it with the hot baked apples.

  2. Allow to cool before serving.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the main filling, softening during baking and adding tartness that balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the filling turn dark and syrupy as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, color, and moisture to the apple filling.
All-purpose flour
Builds the structure of the crust, which is later broken up and soaked with juices.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the crust a tender texture and golden browning.
Baking powder
Helps the crust rise and lighten as it bakes.

The step that matters

Remove the crust, break it into small pieces, and mix it with the hot baked apples.. Hot apple juices soak into the crumbled crust, making it moist and syrupy. If the apples have cooled or the crust is left in large pieces, it can stay dry and floury.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, allspice, apple, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, allspice, apple, 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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