Name: Onion Pie
Ingredients: 2 large onions; ¼ ounce dried sage; 2 ounces butter; 1 apple; sugar; pepper; salt; pie crust

Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Onion Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

Cut the onions in half and boil for 5 minutes.
Chop the onions small and mix with sage, pepper, and salt.
Place the onion mixture in a pie dish with butter and a little water.
Prepare the apple as for sauce, adding a little sugar.

Assemble and bake

Layer the apple over the onions, cover with pie crust, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + appletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together755 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Onions: Form the bulk of the filling and provide savory sweetness as they soften.
Sage: Adds the dominant herbal aroma that defines the savory flavor.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the onion mixture as it bakes.
Apple: Adds gentle sweetness and fruity moisture that balances the onions.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a golden top.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, butter, apple, sugar, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, butter, apple, sugar, pepper. 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.