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Dessert

Apple Pie

A fruit pie with apples and quince, topped with short pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. 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.

Make the pastry

  1. Mix flour, butter, and salt until crumbly.

  2. Add ice water until dough forms.

  3. Chill dough for 30 minutes.

Fill and bake

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

  2. Roll out the pastry and line the bottom of a pie dish.

  3. Place a few cloves, chopped lemon peel, and a little mace at the bottom.

  4. Layer half of the apples in the dish, sprinkle with brown sugar, and add two quarters of quince.

  5. Add the remaining apples and two or three more pieces of quince.

  6. Cover with sugar, dot with butter, and add a little water.

  7. Cover with the top pastry and bake for 45-50 minutes.

  8. Pour the mixture over the pie after it has cooled for a few minutes.

  9. Beat the egg yolks with heavy cream.

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. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure.
Unsalted butter
Creates flaky layers in the pastry as it melts and steams during baking.
Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and its tart, fruity flavor.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds caramel notes as it dissolves and cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard-style topping and help it set into a smooth texture.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness to the egg mixture, giving it a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Chill the dough before rolling. Cold butter pieces stay separate in the dough and melt during baking, creating flaky layers. Warm dough lets the butter blend in, making the crust tough and greasy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, apple, quince, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, apple, quince, sugar, egg, cream. 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.

More apple pie recipes

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