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Dessert

Vinegar Pie

A pie with a filling made from vinegar, egg, butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,147 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Vinegar Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine vinegar, egg, butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it thickens.

Bake

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust and bake until the crust is golden.

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.

  1. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Vinegar from pickled peaches
Provides the tart acidity that gives the pie its characteristic flavor.
Egg
Thickens the filling and gives it structure as it heats and sets.
Flour
Thickens the liquid filling so it holds its shape when cooled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity with sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until it thickens. Flour starch and egg proteins must be heated enough to thicken the mixture. Undercooked filling stays runny and may not set when cooled, while overheating can cause the egg to curdle.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, egg, walnut, butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, walnut, butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon. 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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