Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Boiled Cider Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine the boiled cider, sugar, water, flour, and beaten egg. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a deep pie plate.
Assemble and bake
Cover with both upper and lower crusts.
Bake until the crust is golden and the filling is set.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,308 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cider + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together812 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Boiled cider
- Concentrated apple flavor and sweetness that gives the filling its character.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly during baking.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid so the filling sets rather than running.
- Egg
- Sets the filling as it heats, giving it a firm, sliceable body.
The step that matters
Bake until the filling is set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, and the starch from the flour thickens the liquid. Underbaking leaves a runny center, while the crust can brown before the filling is fully set, so judge by the filling rather than the crust color alone.
“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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