Name: Plum Pie
Ingredients: pie dough; plums; sugar; flour; water (if using large dry plums)

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 ↓

Plum 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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie pan with the pie dough.
Fill the pan with plums, seeded or unseeded.
Sprinkle the plums with sugar and a little flour.
If using large dry plums, add a little water.
Cover with a second crust and pinch the edges to seal.
Make slashes across the top crust.
Bake until the pie is done.

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).
Plum + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,313 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).