Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Strawberry 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).
Roll out the puff pastry and place it on a baking sheet.
Assemble
Wet the edge of the pastry and create a rim with sauce paste, about ⅓ inch thick.
Pick the strawberries and roll them in fresh butter and powdered sugar.
Place the strawberries in the center of the pastry in a dome shape.
Wet the rim again and cover with another layer of puff pastry.
Press the edges gently to seal and trim any excess.
Finish and bake
Baste the surface with egg white and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes, ensuring the surface does not brown.
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.
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
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
- Puff pastry
- Forms flaky, layered walls that puff up as steam and melted fat expand during baking.
- Strawberries
- Provide the main filling, releasing juice and flavor as they heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that coats the berries and carries flavor.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the berries and dissolves into their juices to form a light syrup.
- Egg white
- Brushed on top, it helps the surface turn glossy and golden.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the crust surface and aids browning when sprinkled on top.
The step that matters
Press the edges gently to seal. Sealing the top and bottom pastry layers keeps the strawberry juices inside while the pie bakes. Press gently, because hard pressing squashes the pastry layers so they cannot puff, and a weak seal lets juice leak out.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.