Name: Green Currant Pie
Ingredients: 2 heaping tablespoons sugar; 2 heaping tablespoons flour (or 1 heaping tablespoon corn starch); 1 pint green currants, washed; 2 tablespoons currant jelly; 4 heaping tablespoons sugar (for sprinkling); 2 tablespoons cold water

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Green Currant Pie

Ingredients

2 heaping tablespoons sugar
2 heaping tablespoons flour (or 1 heaping tablespoon corn starch)
1 pint green currants, washed
2 tablespoons currant jelly
4 heaping tablespoons sugar (for sprinkling)
2 tablespoons cold water

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.

Make the filling

Mix 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons flour (or corn starch).
Pour in the washed green currants and add 2 tablespoons currant jelly.
Sprinkle with 4 tablespoons sugar and add 2 tablespoons cold water.

Bake

Cover the mixture and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes
Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Green currants: Provide the tart fruit that forms the body of the filling.
Flour: Thickens the juices as they heat, giving the filling body.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart currants and helps draw out their juice.
Currant jelly: Adds concentrated currant flavor and extra pectin to help set the filling.