Name: Boiled Cider Pie
Ingredients: ½ cup boiled cider; 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; water to fill the plate; vanilla or lemon extract (to taste); 2 pie crusts

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Boiled Cider 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine boiled cider, sugar, eggs, and vanilla or lemon extract.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pie crusts, adding water to fill the plate.

Assemble and bake

Cover with the second crust and seal the edges.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or 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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cider + vanillatop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together128 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together27,347 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Boiled cider: Provides concentrated apple flavour and sweetness, giving the filling its main character.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling set with the eggs and browning of the crust.
Eggs: Set the filling as they heat, giving it a custard-like structure once baked.