Skip to main content
Dessert

Molasses Pie

A sweet pie made with molasses, sugar, eggs, butter, sour cream or milk, baking soda, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Walnut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,230 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Molasses Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, sugar, butter, sour cream or milk, and baking soda.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites last, or reserve 2 whites for meringue.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake slowly until set.

  4. Sprinkle nutmeg on top for flavor.

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.

  1. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks add richness and body, while whipped whites lighten the filling and help it set.
Molasses
Provides deep, sweet flavor and a dark color to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set smoothly.
Sour cream or milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the filling.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour cream to help the filling rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped, and deflate if stirred hard. Folding gently keeps the filling light, so it rises and sets with an even texture rather than turning dense.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, molasses, sugar, butter, cream, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, sugar, butter, cream, nutmeg. 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.

More molasses pie recipes

Lemon 3 See all 43 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes