Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Cherry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie pan with pastry.
Fill and cover
Drain the cherries and mix them thoroughly with sugar and salt.
Fill the pie with the cherry mixture and add ½ cup of cherry juice.
Dredge the filling with flour.
Wet the edges of the pie and lay a 1-inch-wide strip of pastry around it.
Brush the strip with cold water and cover with the upper crust.
Press the edges well and flute them with your thumb and finger.
Bake and serve
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.
Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar and serve hot.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit filling that gives the pie its main flavor and body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the cherries.
- Flour
- Dusted on the filling to thicken the juices as the pie bakes.
- Pastry
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Dredge the filling with flour. Flour mixed into the juicy filling thickens the liquid as it heats. Without it, the juice can stay runny and make the slice soggy when cut.
“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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