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Dessert

Amber Pie

A raisin pie made with sour milk, sugar, and spices, topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Amber 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, sour milk, raisins, flour, butter, vinegar, and spices.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the top of the pie.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the filling, adding richness and helping it set into a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light topping that browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown on top as it bakes.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and tang, giving the filling a tangy, rich body.
Flour
Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when baked.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites need to be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the topping stays light and spreads evenly. Under-beaten whites will be runny and may weep or sink into the filling during baking.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, butter, vinegar, cinnamon, egg):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, butter, vinegar, cinnamon, egg. 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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