Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Washington 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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add to the creamed mixture.
Spread the batter in round tins and bake until golden.
Make the filling
For the filling, cook the grated apple, sugar, egg, lemon juice, and peel in a saucepan until thickened.
Assemble and serve
Once the pie crusts are baked, fill them with the apple mixture.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the crust a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as it bakes and sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the crusts rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the crust and helps the creamed butter become light and fluffy.
- Raw apple
- Provides moisture and fruit flavour to the filling as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until thickened. The egg in the filling thickens as it heats, but overheating can make it scramble or curdle. Cooking gently while stirring keeps it smooth and evenly set.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, egg, lemon. 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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