Name: Date Pie
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 2 eggs; 1 pound dates

Why it works: Milk and dates work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Date Pie

Ingredients

1 quart milk
2 eggs
1 pound dates

Directions

Stew the dates until soft.
Strain the stewed dates through a colander.
Combine the strained dates with milk and beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make two 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.

Milk + datestop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + datestop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).