Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓
Baked Apples
Ingredients
Directions
Peel and core the apples.
Fill the cavities with sugar, one clove, a pinch of cinnamon, and a bit of butter.
Pour a syrup of hot water and honey or sugar around the apples.
Bake carefully until tender.
Never bake apples with the peel on.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apple + honeytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together569 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cinnamon + honeytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,446 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Their flesh softens with heat, becoming tender and holding the filling as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the filling and syrup caramelise slightly around the apples.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the filling and carries the spice flavours through the apple.
- Cinnamon
- Provides warm aromatic flavour that complements the sweetness of the apples.
- Cloves
- Contributes a strong, warm aroma that is used sparingly in the filling.
The step that matters
Bake carefully until tender.. Apple flesh softens as heat breaks down its cell walls and pectin. Overbaking turns the apples mushy, while underbaking leaves them firm.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon, butter, honey):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Gingerfits about as well
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon, butter, honey. 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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