Name: Baked Apples Stuffed with Dates and Figs
Ingredients: 8 large firm apples; 16 dates, finely chopped; 8 figs, finely chopped; cinnamon, to taste; nutmeg, to taste; 2 cups brown sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup water

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Apples Stuffed with Dates and Figs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Wash, core, and peel the apples, removing a generous amount of flesh around the core.
In a bowl, mix the chopped dates and figs.
Stuff the cavities of the apples with the date and fig mixture.

Assemble and bake

Place the stuffed apples in a baking dish.
Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over each apple.
In the baking dish, add brown sugar, butter, and water.
Bake uncovered in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the apples are tender but not mushy.

Serve

Serve the apples with the sauce from the pan and additional 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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together318 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Apple + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide the structure that holds the filling and softens into a tender base when baked.
Dates and figs: Add sweetness, moisture, and a chewy texture to the filling.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and dissolves into the pan liquid to form a syrupy sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the pan juices become a smooth, glossy sauce.

The step that matters

Bake until tender but not mushy. Apples keep softening from residual heat after leaving the oven. Overbaking breaks down the cell walls and pectin until the flesh collapses, so removing them when just tender keeps their shape.

Swap the dates

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

Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Peachfits better
Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, fig, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, butter. 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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Apple Cake80 recipes

Apple Meringue75 recipes

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

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Baked Apples Stuffed with Dates and Figs