Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Blackberry 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the pie crust as you would for an apple pie.
Line the pie plate with the crust.
Assemble and bake
Add the blackberries and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of flour.
Roll out the top crust and create decorative leaves by pricking with a fork.
Moisten the edges of the bottom crust with cold water, place the top crust on, and press together.
Brush the top with milk and bake for 20 minutes.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Gives the crust its structure and absorbs juices from the blackberries as they bake.
- Homemade compound (shortening)
- Fat that keeps the crust tender and flaky by coating flour particles.
- Blackberries
- Provide the main filling, sweetness, and acidity that flavor the pie.
- Milk
- Brushed on top to promote browning of the crust.
The step that matters
Moisten the edges of the bottom crust with cold water before sealing. Water helps the top and bottom crusts bond so juices do not leak out during baking. Cold water keeps the fat in the dough firm, which helps the crust stay flaky.
“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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