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Dessert

Sour Cream Pie

A pie with a filling of yolks, sugar, raisins, sour cream, cloves, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,070 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sour Cream Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light and creamy.

  2. Add sugar, chopped raisins, sour cream, and ground cloves; mix well.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook until smooth and thick.

Bake the pie

  1. Line a pie plate with the pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Fill the crust with the mixture.

Top with meringue

  1. Make a meringue by beating the egg whites and gradually adding powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie and bake until lightly browned.

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. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + raisintop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard filling as they cook and add richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a meringue that sets and browns on top of the pie.
Sour cream
Adds tanginess and moisture, giving the filling a creamy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps keep the custard soft.
Chopped raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling in a double boiler. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot. Gentle, indirect heat lets the custard thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, raisin, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, raisin, cream. 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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