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To Make an Onion Pie

A savory pie with layers of potatoes, onions, apples, eggs, butter, and spices baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Make an Onion 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. Wash and peel the potatoes, onions, and apples, then slice them.

  2. Make a good crust and cover your dish with it.

  3. Spread ¼ pound of butter over the crust.

  4. Mix mace, grated nutmeg, beaten pepper, and coarse sea salt together.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle some of the seasoning over the butter.

  2. Layer the potatoes, onions, apples, and eggs in the pie, adding seasoning between each layer.

  3. Add bits of butter and 6 tablespoons of water on top.

  4. Close the pie and bake it for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the seasoning and helping the top brown.
Potatoes
Provide starchy bulk that gives the pie body and a soft, tender texture.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aroma that mellows as the pie bakes.
Apples
Add natural sweetness and acidity that balance the savoury seasoning.

The step that matters

Close the pie and bake it for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C). Eggs set as they cook, so the filling needs the full baking time at steady heat to firm up. Underbaking leaves a runny center, while overbaking dries the layers.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, egg, butter, mace, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, egg, butter, mace, nutmeg, pepper. 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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