Name: Ohia Pie
Ingredients: sliced ohias; ¾ cup sugar; bits of butter; juice of 2 lemons

Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Ohia Pie

Ingredients

sliced ohias
¾ cup sugar
bits of butter
juice of 2 lemons

Directions

Line a pie tin with pastry.
Fill with sliced ohias.
Sprinkle ¾ cup sugar, bits of butter, and juice of 2 lemons over the ohias.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Add the upper crust and bake until brown.

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.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sliced ohias: Provides the main fruit filling that bakes into the pie's body.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps draw out juices from the fruit.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and fat to the filling as it melts over the fruit.