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Dessert

Prune Pie

A pastry crust filled with stewed prunes and topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Prune 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 filling

  1. Line a pie tin with the pastry.

  2. Fill the crust with the stewed prunes.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cinnamon, and grated lemon rind.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until nearly done.

Make and bake the meringue

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add sugar and lemon juice, mixing until combined.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie.

  4. Return the pie to the oven.

  5. Bake until the meringue is golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Stewed prunes
Provide the main fruit filling, with moisture and sweetness for the pie.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that sets into a light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it hold stiff peaks and brown.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling and helps stabilize the meringue.
Pastry
Forms the crust that holds the filling and supports the topping.

The step that matters

Bake until the meringue is golden brown. Meringue needs enough heat to set and brown fully, but overbaking can make it weep, shrink, or turn tough. Watch for color rather than relying only on time.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, egg. 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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