Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Line a pie plate with the pie crust.
Sprinkle cornstarch lightly over the bottom crust.
Fill and seal
Fill the crust with cherries and adjust the sugar based on their sweetness.
Cover with an upper crust and secure the edges by spreading egg white around and pinching them together.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden brown and serve cold.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit filling and its flavour and bulk.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the cherry juices as they heat, so the filling sets rather than running.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the cherries.
- Egg white
- Seals the edges of the top crust to the bottom crust and helps them brown.
The step that matters
Sprinkle cornstarch lightly over the bottom crust. Cornstarch only thickens when the juices reach a boil and it is evenly distributed. Too much, or clumps, can leave pockets of raw starch taste or a gluey texture, while too little leaves the filling runny once cut.
“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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