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Dessert

Delicious Prune Pie

A pastry crust filled with stewed prunes, sugar, fruit juice, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓

Delicious Prune Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crust

  1. Make a crust by mixing flour and butter, adding a little cold water as needed.

  2. Roll out the crust, then dot with 1 tablespoon of butter in small pieces.

  3. Fold the crust and refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Make the filling

  1. Scald the prunes, then boil them with sugar and fruit juice until tender.

  2. Remove the pits from the prunes, then mix in chocolate and additional juice.

Assemble

  1. Cover the filling with narrow strips of crust, crossing them over each other.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the crust that holds the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crust and helps it flake when kept cold.
Prunes
Form the main filling and contribute sweetness and soft texture as they cook.
Sugar
Sweetens the prune filling and helps it thicken as it cooks.
Fruit juice
Adds moisture and fruity flavor to the filling as the prunes soften.
Chocolate
Adds deep, rich flavor to the prune filling.

The step that matters

Chilling the folded crust. Cold butter stays in solid pieces, and as it melts in the oven it creates steam pockets that make the crust flaky. Refrigerating firms the dough so it holds its shape and does not become greasy or tough.

“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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