Name: Apple Pie
Ingredients: tart apples; pie crust; butter; sugar; flour; nutmeg; ½ cup water

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Pare and slice the tart apples very thin.
Line a deep pie tin with the pie crust.

Layer the filling

Place a layer of apples in the tin.
Drop small bits of butter on top of the apples.
Sprinkle generously with sugar.
Dredge lightly with flour.
Grate a little nutmeg over the layer.
Repeat the layering process until you have three layers of apples.
Pour ½ cup of water over the top layer.

Bake

Cover with the top crust.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for fifty minutes.

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.

Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Tart apples: Provide the fruit that forms the filling, softening and flavouring the pie as they bake.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, helping the filling taste rounded and the crust brown.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps the apple juices form a syrup.
Flour: Lightly dusted between layers, it thickens the juices released by the apples.
Pie crust: Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.