Name: Ripe Currant Pie
Ingredients: one cupful of ripe currants; two tablespoon fuls of water; two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; two eggs

Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Ripe Currant Pie

Ingredients

one cupful of ripe currants
two tablespoon fuls of water
two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar
two eggs

Directions

Make the filling

Mash one cupful of ripe currants.
Add one of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of water, and one of flour to the currants.
Beat these with the yolks of two eggs, then bake.

Top and brown

Beat the egg whites and two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and frost the top with them.
Brown in the oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

189Calories

7 gProtein

6 gFat

29 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
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.

By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog]. 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.

Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Ripe currants: Provide the fruit body and tart flavour of the pie filling.
Eggs: Yolks bind the filling and help it set; whites whip into the topping that browns.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the filling and the whipped egg white topping.