Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: two tablespoons of water to each pie; half cup butter; half cup rich milk; half cup butter creamed; half cup milk; one cup sugar; four pounds beef chopped fine; two pounds suet; two pounds currants; one pound raisins; one ounce citron; three pounds sugar; half pint wine; a spoonful of dried orange peel; six good sized apples; two lemons; four eggs well beaten; four eggs; five grated apples; four eggs beaten separately; two cups sugar; one vessel; half full; twelve large apples; nutmeg

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Yolks and whites add richness and set the filling as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a tender texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps form a syrup with the apples.
Apples: Provide the main fruit body and moisture of the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in lightly the beaten whites of four eggs. Overbeating or deflating the whites removes the air that gives a light, tender set, so fold them in gently at the end.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, sugar, beef, raisin, wine, orange):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Applefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, beef, raisin, wine, orange. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Orange Peel	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Water	not in our table	0
Pie	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee