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Dessert

Date Pie

A sweet pie made with dates, milk, eggs, butter, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Date Pie

enough for three pies

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 dates

  1. Soak the dates in water overnight.

  2. The next morning, stew the dates in the same water until soft.

  3. Strain the mixture through a colander.

Make the filling and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the strained dates with milk, beaten eggs, salt, butter, and nutmeg.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. This recipe makes enough for three pies.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Dates + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Dates + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide the main sweetness and body, becoming a thick, sweet base once stewed and strained.
Eggs
Set the custard-like filling as they heat, giving it structure when baked.
Whole milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, helping the filling bake into a smooth custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so the pie should be baked just until the filling firms. Overbaking can make it curdle, weep, or turn grainy.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, nutmeg. 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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