Why it works: Blackberry and butter work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 522 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓
Jam 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the jam until fully combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake for 30-35 minutes or until set.
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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Blackberry + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together522 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Blackberry + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,033 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps cream with butter to a light, fluffy texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set, binding the filling so it firms up when baked.
- Jam
- Supplies fruit flavor, sweetness and moisture to the filling.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually and mixing well after each helps them emulsify into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them all at once can cause the mixture to look curdled and trap less air, which affects the final texture.
Swap the blackberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Blackberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter. 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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