Name: Green Currant Pie
Ingredients: 2 cups green currants, rinsed; ¾ cup sugar, divided; ¼ teaspoon cinnamon; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 pie crust

Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Green Currant 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 crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie plate with the pie crust.

Fill the pie

Fill the crust half full with currants.
Add ½ cup sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
Fill the plate completely with currants.
Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
Cover with the pie crust.

Bake

Bake for 30 minutes.

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.

Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Green currants: Provide the tart fruit filling that gives the pie its main flavor and juice.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart currants and helps draw out juice as the pie bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the filling.
Pie crust: Forms the case that holds the juicy filling while it bakes.