Name: Grape Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 heaping cups ripe uncooked grapes; flour for crust

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Grape 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg and sugar together in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

Add the grapes, flour, and butter to the mixture.
Prepare two pie crusts and fill them with the grape mixture.
Bake until 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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,028 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs: Binds the filling and adds richness to help it set when baked.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the grapes.
Grapes: Provide the main fruit filling, with their juice adding moisture as the pie bakes.
Flour: Thickens the grape juices so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the filling.