Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the filling
Stew the cranberries with the sugar and strain the mixture.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie plate with the pie crust and fill it with the cranberry jam.
Wash the edges of the crust, then lay three strips of dough across the top.
Fasten the edges and place three more strips to form diamond-shaped spaces.
Add a rim of dough around the edge, brush with egg, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is cooked.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart fruit flavor and, once stewed, the jam-like filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart cranberries and helps thicken the stewed fruit into a jam.
- Egg
- Brushed on the crust to promote browning and a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Stewing and straining the cranberries. Cranberries contain a lot of pectin and water; stewing them fully with sugar lets the filling thicken, and straining removes skins and seeds so the filling sets smoothly rather than running when cut.
“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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