Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Jelly Pie
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the filling
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, butter, and fruit or preserves until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pastry shell.
Bake the pie until set.
Top and brown
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form to make a meringue.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie and return to the oven to brown.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a rich, custardy body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue stay glossy and tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture in the filling.
- Fruit or preserves
- Provides the main flavor and sweetness in the filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, adding airy lightness.
The step that matters
Bake the pie until set. Underbaked egg yolks stay runny and the filling will not hold a clean slice. Overbaking can make the eggs weep and toughen, so bake only until the centre is set.
“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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