Skip to main content
Main

Pan Pie

A deep pie crust filled with sliced tart apples, thin pork slices, brown sugar, molasses, salt, and allspice, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pan Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a deep pie dish with pie crust.

  2. Fill the crust with sliced tart apples.

  3. Layer thin slices of pork over the apples.

  4. Sweeten with brown sugar and molasses.

  5. Add salt and allspice.

Bake

  1. Bake for 3 hours in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apple + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together998 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Apple + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Molasses + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pork + allspicetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,194 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Pie crust
Forms the deep case that holds the filling while it bakes.
Tart apples
Add acidity and moisture, and soften into the filling as it bakes.
Pork
Provides the savory meat layer that cooks through in the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize slightly as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter flavor.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow for 3 hours. A long, gentle bake at 300°F lets the pork cook through without drying out, while the apples soften and the sugars melt into the filling. Rushing with higher heat can leave the pork undercooked or the apples firm.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, pork, sugar, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, pork, sugar, molasses. 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.

More pork and apple pie recipes

Boston 4 See all 6 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesApple SoupApple Soup33 recipesMolasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipes