Name: Cherry Pie
Ingredients: 1 pie crust; 2 cups cherries, pitted; ½ cup sugar (or to taste); 1 tablespoon corn starch (or 1 tablespoon flour); 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Corn and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cherry Pie

Ingredients

1 pie crust
2 cups cherries, pitted
½ cup sugar (or to taste)
1 tablespoon corn starch (or 1 tablespoon flour)
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Line a pie tin with the crust.
Fill the crust with the pitted cherries and sweeten to taste.
Sprinkle the corn starch or flour evenly over the cherries.
Add small bits of butter on top.
Wet the edge of the crust, place the upper crust on, and press the edges together.
Make holes in the center of the crust for air to escape.

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.

Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,168 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).