Name: Summer Mince Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sour cream; 1 cup sugar; 1 egg; 1 cup raisins; Flavoring to taste; 2 pie crusts

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Summer Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, mix sour cream, sugar, egg, raisins, and flavoring until well combined.
Prepare two pie crusts.

Assemble and bake

Fill one crust with the mixture and cover with the second crust.
Bake until the crust is golden brown.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,556 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Sour cream: Adds moisture and richness, with a mild tang that balances the sweetness.
Sugar: Provides sweetness and helps keep the filling moist.
Egg: Helps bind the filling and set it as it bakes.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.