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 ↓
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 the boiled cider, sugar, water, and flour. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into a deep pie plate.
Assemble and bake
Cover with a top crust and seal the edges.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
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).
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Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,308 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cider + flourtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together812 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 sweetness and tangy flavour that forms the pie's filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the boiled cider and sugar mixture so the filling sets rather than running.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste balanced against the cider's acidity.
The step that matters
Seal the edges of the top crust. A tight seal keeps the juicy filling from bubbling out and drying in the oven. Thickened fillings can leak through gaps, leaving the pie underfilled and the crust soggy at the rim.
“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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