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Dessert

Caramel Pie

A pie with a caramel filling made from butter, cream, brown sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Caramel Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Line a deep pie pan with rich pastry.

  3. Mix the flour with the brown sugar.

  4. Cream the butter in a bowl.

Make the filling

  1. Add the sugar, cream, and beaten egg yolks to the butter.

  2. Flavor the mixture with vanilla extract.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites to make a meringue for the top of the pie.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie filling.

  3. Bake the pie slowly until set.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a tender, smooth texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the filling as it sets, and whites whip into the meringue topping.
Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and molasses flavor, and helps the filling set moist and caramel-like.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, producing a softer, creamier custard-like filling.
Flour
Thickens the filling and helps it hold its shape when baked.

The step that matters

Bake the pie slowly until set. Low, gentle heat lets the egg-thickened filling set evenly without curdling or puffing. Baking too hot can make the filling weep or turn grainy, and the meringue can over-brown.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar, egg, flour. 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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