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 ↓
Ripe Currant 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.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine currants, sugar, egg yolks, water, and flour.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Make the meringue and bake
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the egg whites, continuing to beat until glossy.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling.
Bake until the meringue 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Currant + flourtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Currants
- Provide the tart fruit flavor and the bulk of the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness to the custard-like layer.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a meringue that forms the golden topping.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the meringue stays airy and spreads over the filling without collapsing. Adding sugar gradually helps stabilize the foam and keeps it glossy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour. 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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