Why it works: Flour and sugar 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 ↓
Ripe Currant Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Stir 2 tablespoons water and 1 tablespoon flour to a smooth paste.
Add yolks of 2 eggs and 1 cup sugar; mix well.
Add the mixture to 1 cup of ripe currants mashed fine.
Bake and finish
Line an inch-deep pie tin with a good crust.
Pour in the mixture and bake slowly until the crust is well done and will slide around in the tin.
Cover with the two stiffly beaten whites to which 2 tablespoons of sugar have been added.
Return to oven until browned nicely.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the currant filling, while the beaten whites form a light, browned topping.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the mixture into a smooth filling that holds its shape when cut.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the currants and helps the meringue-style topping brown in the oven.
- Ripe currants
- Provide the tart fruit flavour and the bulk of the filling.
The step that matters
Baking the filling slowly. Baking slowly lets the crust set fully before the wet currant filling soaks it. A soggy base results if the crust is underbaked or the oven is too hot, causing the filling to boil and crack.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg. 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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