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 ↓
Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Split each cranberry with a sharp knife and place them in a bowl.
Add the sugar, water, and flour to the cranberries and stir well.
Assemble and bake
Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
Cover with an upper crust and bake until golden.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart fruit base and the bulk of the filling.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the tart cranberries and helps soften them as they bake.
- Flour
- Thickens the cranberry juices so the filling sets rather than running out.
The step that matters
Splitting each cranberry. Cutting the skins lets the juices release and thicken with the sugar and flour. Whole berries stay firm and leave the filling watery and uneven.
“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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