Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓
Scalloped Apple
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Mix the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind in a bowl.
Melt the butter and stir it into the bread crumbs.
Butter a pudding dish.
Layer and bake
Layer ½ of the breadcrumbs.
Add ½ of the sliced apples.
Sprinkle with ½ of the sugar.
Repeat the layers with the remaining breadcrumbs, apples, and sugar.
If the apples are not very tart, add lemon juice to each layer.
If the apples are not juicy, add ¼ cup of cold water.
Cover the dish and bake until the apples are soft.
Remove the cover and brown the crumbs.
Serve with cream.
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 + appletop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Bread + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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
- Supply the fruit that softens during baking and forms the body of the dish.
- Bread crumbs
- Form the layers that soak up juices and brown on top when uncovered.
- Butter
- Coats the crumbs, adding richness and helping them brown.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise slightly as they bake.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity to balance sweetness when the apples are not very tart.
The step that matters
Cover the dish and bake until the apples are soft. Baking covered traps steam so the apples cook through before the crumbs over-brown. Uncovering only afterwards lets the top brown without drying the fruit.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cinnamon, bread, apple):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cinnamon, bread, apple. 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.
You might also like
Apple Bread Pudding21 recipes
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.