Name: Elderberry Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 tablespoons vinegar (or 1 large pinch Tartaric Acid); Flour or cracker crumbs (for sprinkling); 2 pie crusts

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 ↓

Elderberry Pie

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar (or 1 large pinch Tartaric Acid)
Flour or cracker crumbs (for sprinkling)
2 pie crusts

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine sugar, vinegar (or Tartaric Acid), and a sprinkle of flour or cracker crumbs.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Cover with the second pie crust and seal the edges.
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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).