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Dessert

English Apple Pie

A fruit pie with sliced apples, sugar, spices, and pastry, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

English 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

  1. Butter a pudding dish.

  2. Fill the dish with the prepared apples.

  3. Sweeten the apples and add cinnamon or nutmeg.

  4. Pour in ½ cup of cold water.

Top and bake

  1. Roll the pastry thin and cut a 2-inch wide strip for the edge.

  2. Place the strip around the edge of the dish and cover with the remaining pastry.

  3. Press the edges together and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the apples are tender and the pastry is cooked.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling, softening as they bake to become tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices from the apples.
Pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Cold water
Adds moisture to the filling so the apples cook through without drying.

The step that matters

Press the edges together and bake until the apples are tender. Sealing the pastry edges keeps juices in the dish, and the apples need enough baking time to soften fully. Pulling the pie early leaves firm apples and raw pastry.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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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