Name: Vinegar Pie
Ingredients: 1 pie crust; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 cup light brown sugar; 1 cup vinegar; a pinch of salt; ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make a rich pie crust and place it in a round pie plate.

Fill and bake

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of flour on the bottom crust.
Add 1 cup of light brown sugar on top of the flour.
Sprinkle another spoon of flour over the sugar.
Gradually pour 1 cup of vinegar over the mixture.
Add a pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
Cover with the upper crust and bake until 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.

Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour: Thickens the filling as it bakes, helping it set rather than run.
Light brown sugar: Adds sweetness, moisture and caramel-like depth to the filling.
Vinegar: Provides the sharp, tangy acidity that defines the pie's flavour.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.