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Dessert

Crumb Pie

A pie made with soaked bread crumbs, sugar, butter, water, vinegar, and nutmeg, baked in two crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,997 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Crumb Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take one teacup bread crumbs, soak half an hour.

  2. Make crust same as for other pies.

Make the filling

  1. When soaked add three tablespoons sugar, half a teaspoon butter, half a cup of water, a little vinegar, and nutmeg to suit the taste.

  2. Bake with two crusts.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

519Calories
13 gProtein
2 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Bread + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + nutmegtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,864 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Bread crumbs
Soaked to soften and form the body of the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the vinegar's sharpness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the filling a tart flavour.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, vinegar. 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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