Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cherry, Plum, or Gooseberry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together.
Assemble the pie
Roll out half the dough and line the sides of a deep dish, leaving some overhang.
Cover the bottom of the dish with 1 cup of sugar. Add the whole cherries, plums, or gooseberries on top of the sugar.
Sprinkle additional sugar over the fruit.
Roll out the remaining dough to cover the pie, sealing the edges by moistening with cold water.
Bake
Notch the top crust and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Plum + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together710 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Plum + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough's structure once mixed with water.
- Unsalted butter
- Cut into the flour, it creates flaky layers in the crust as it melts in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out juices as it dissolves.
- Cherries, plums, or gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit filling, with their tartness balanced by the sugar.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour to form a dough that holds together when rolled.
The step that matters
Keep the butter cold and the dough handled lightly. Cold butter pieces stay separate in the dough and melt during baking, leaving flaky layers. If the butter warms and blends in, the crust turns tough and dense.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Plumthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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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