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Dessert

Jelly Pie

A baked pie made with eggs, butter, cream, jelly, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Jelly 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter and mix it with the cream and jelly.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and grated nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. Sweeten to taste based on the acidity of the jelly.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.

  2. Bake until set and lightly 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the filling, and whites add lift and help it set when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture in the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a softer, creamier texture.
Jelly
Provides sweetness, fruity flavor and some acidity to the filling.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor that complements the eggs and cream.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten whites trap air that gives lift and a light set. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the pie bakes denser and less airy. Use slow, wide folds to keep the mixture airy.

“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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