Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Pare, core, and quarter the apples.
Boil the cores and parings in sugar and water; strain the liquid and add more sugar.
Grate the lemon rind over the apples and squeeze the juice into the syrup.
Assemble and bake
Mix the cloves with the fruit, add the butter, and optional wine.
Cover with puff pastry and bake until golden.
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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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Apple + winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,207 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 and its tender, juicy texture when baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps draw out juice to form the syrup.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that gives a rounder, softer flavour.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, layered crust that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until golden. Puff pastry needs a hot oven to puff and brown properly; underbaking leaves the crust pale and doughy, while the filling must be hot enough to cook the apples through.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, clove, butter, wine):
- Chestnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, clove, butter, wine. 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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