Name: Pie-plant Pie
Ingredients: ½ cup white sugar; 2 teaspoons flour; 4 cups pie-plant, cut up fine; 1 lemon, grated rind and juice; 2 egg yolks

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 ↓

Pie-plant Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Mix ½ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons flour together and sprinkle over the bottom crust.
Add the cut pie-plant and sprinkle with another ½ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons flour.

Bake

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.
Alternatively, stew the pie-plant until soft, sweeten, and mix in the grated rind and juice of a lemon and 2 egg yolks.
Bake and frost like a lemon pie.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg 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

Pie-plant: Forms the filling's bulk and tart flavour once cooked down.
White sugar: Sweetens the tart pie-plant and helps soften its texture as it bakes.
Flour: Thickens the juices released by the pie-plant so the filling sets.
Egg yolks: Enrich and thicken the filling when it is stewed and mixed in.