Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Currant Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the red currants, sugar, egg yolks, flour, and water.
Pour the mixture into a lower pie crust and bake until set.
Make and add the meringue
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the pulverized sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie and brown slightly in the oven.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Red currant + flourtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together394 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Red currants
- Provide the tart, fruity flavour that balances the sweetness of the pie.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the currant filling and helps it set with the egg yolks.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set during baking, giving it a custard-like body.
- Flour
- Adds body to the filling, helping it hold together when set.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
- Pulverized sugar
- Dissolves into the whipped whites, stabilising the meringue and giving it a glossy texture.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until stiff peaks form, with sugar added gradually, so the foam holds its shape and browns evenly. Under-beaten or greasy whites will weep or collapse in the oven.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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