Name: Vinegar Pie
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 heaping cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons cider vinegar; pinch of salt; a little nutmeg; 1½ cups boiling water

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Vinegar Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the crust

Spread the butter in the bottom of the pie crust.
In a bowl, blend the brown sugar and flour together.
Sprinkle the sugar and flour mixture lightly over the butter.

Add the filling and bake

In a separate bowl, combine the cider vinegar, salt, nutmeg, and boiling water.
Pour the mixture into the crust and bake.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Butter: Adds fat and richness to the base layer.
Brown sugar: Provides sweetness and a deep molasses flavour.
Flour: Thickens the filling as it mixes with the liquid.
Cider vinegar: Adds the sharp acidity that gives the pie its tang.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, cider, vinegar):

Cinnamonfits better
Jalapenofits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, cider, vinegar. 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.