Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Lincoln 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Combine the stewed apples, butter, flour, lemon rind, lemon juice, and beaten egg yolks in a bowl.
Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Bake and top
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Spread the meringue over the baked pie and brown it in the oven.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Stewed sour apples
- Provide the bulk and tart flavor of the filling.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the filling as it sets; whites whipped into meringue give the topping its structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat for a tender, flavorful filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the apple mixture so it holds together when set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, dissolved into the whites, stabilizes the meringue.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites into meringue. Whites must reach stiff peaks before sugar is gradually added; under-beaten or greasy whites won't hold their shape, and the meringue may weep or collapse while browning.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, flour, lemon, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, lemon, sugar. 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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