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Dessert

Orange Pie

A pie made with orange juice, rind, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Orange Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Juice and grate the rind of one orange.

  2. Add 2/3 cupful of milk.

  3. Add 3 eggs.

  4. Add 1 cupful of granulated sugar.

  5. Add 1 tablespoonful of flour.

  6. Add 1/2 saltspoonful of salt.

  7. Beat the yolks and the sugar together; add the flour, the milk, and the grated rind and juice of the orange.

  8. Place it on the fire in a double boiler, and stir until it is a little thickened.

Bake and finish

  1. Brush the crust of the pie with white of egg before adding the thickened mixture.

  2. The tart crust may be first baked, as directed above, if preferred.

  3. Pour it into an open or tart pie, and bake thirty minutes.

  4. Cover the top with meringue made with the whites of the eggs and sweetened with three tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  5. Pile it on irregularly, or press it through a pastry-bag into fancy shapes.

  6. Place it in the oven a moment to brown.

  7. A little more flour may be used if the pie is wanted more solid.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

793Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
135 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 filling on heating and the whites form the meringue topping.
Flour
Starch thickens the filling and helps it hold a firmer, more solid set.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness to the custard base, softening its texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and the meringue, and helps the meringue hold its shape.
Orange
Supplies juice and rind for bright citrus acidity and aroma.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling on the double boiler. Egg yolks set when heated gently, but overheating can curdle them. Stirring over moderate heat until only slightly thickened keeps the custard smooth before it goes into the pie.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, 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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