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Dessert

Vinegar Pie

A pie made by cooking vinegar, flour, and water into a custard-like filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Vinegar 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.

Make the filling

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, flour, and water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

  3. Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, like a custard pie.

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. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp, acidic flavor that defines the pie.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and sets when heated.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring constantly. Flour starch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed and prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pot, so the filling sets smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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