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Dessert

Amber Pie

A sweet pie with raisins, spices, and a buttery custard filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Amber 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 the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the flour, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves; mix well.

  4. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the raisins, sour milk, and vinegar until combined.

Bake the pies

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts, enough for two pies.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and spread on top of the pies.

  3. Bake until set and golden.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the filling its dark, caramelized color as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling, softening its texture.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the other ingredients for a tender filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Egg-based fillings continue to firm as they cool, so underbaking leaves a runny center while overbaking can make the filling weep or curdle. Watch for a set center and a golden meringue top.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, allspice, egg, raisin):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, allspice, egg, raisin. 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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