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Dessert

Improved Vinegar Pie

A sweet pie made with vinegar, brown sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Improved Vinegar Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, boil the brown sugar, vinegar, butter, and boiling water together.

  2. Dissolve the flour in 2 teaspoons of water, then add the egg yolk and beat well.

  3. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling mixture and boil for a moment.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg white until stiff, then pour the boiling mixture over it.

  2. Pour the mixture into an unbaked pie crust and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Serve warm.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and a caramel-like depth to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and gives the pie its tang.
Flour
Thickens the boiling liquid so the filling sets to a smooth, sliceable texture.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps thicken the filling as it cooks.
Egg white
Whipped to a stiff foam that lightens the texture of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling mixture over the stiff egg white. The egg white must be beaten stiff first, because the hot syrup cooks and sets it into an airy structure. If the white is loose, it will deflate and the filling will turn out dense and wet.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

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