Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Berry Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Pick over the berries and sprinkle them lightly with flour.
Add about 1 cup of sugar to taste.
Do not use spices to preserve the fruit flavor.
Bake and serve
Bake in a deep pie plate with two crusts.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Berries
- Provide the main fruit flavor, and their juices form the filling's moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws juice out of the berries, shaping the filling's syrup.
- Flour
- Thickens the released berry juices so the filling sets rather than running.
- Pie crusts
- Form the enclosing structure that holds the filling while it bakes.
The step that matters
Sprinkling the berries with flour. Flour absorbs and thickens the juice released as the fruit heats. Too little leaves a runny filling that soaks the crust, while even coating keeps the filling sliceable.
“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.