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 ↓
Grape Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the grapes
Remove the pulp from the grape skins into one dish and place the skins in another.
Simmer the pulp gently to soften it, then rub it through a colander to separate it from the seeds.
Combine the skins and pulp; they are now ready for pies or canning.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie dish with crust, fill it with the grape mixture, and sprinkle sugar over it to taste.
Dredge flour on top, cover with another layer of crust, pinch the edges together, and cut a slit in the center for steam to escape.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Grape + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,482 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,490 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grapes
- Provide the main filling, with pulp and skins supplying flavor and body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the grapes.
- Flour
- Dredged over the filling to help thicken the juices as the pie bakes.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that encloses the filling and browns during baking.
The step that matters
Cut a steam slit in the top crust. Filling heats and releases steam as it bakes. Without a vent, pressure can build and push the juices out or make the crust soggy, so the slit lets steam escape.
Swap the grape
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour. 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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