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Dessert

Date Pie

A sweet pie made with dates, water, egg, sugar, lemon juice, scalded milk, baked in a pie shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Date Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the date paste

  1. Combine cleaned dates and water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over simmering water for about 20 minutes.

  3. Rub mixture through a sieve to create a smooth paste.

Make the custard

  1. Beat egg and sugar until light.

  2. Add lemon juice and date paste.

  3. Gradually mix in scalded milk until well combined.

  4. Pour mixture into a half-baked pie shell.

Bake

  1. Finish baking in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until a knife inserted comes out clean.

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. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Dates + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Cleaned dates
Provide the main flavour and sweetness, and cook down into a thick, smooth filling.
Egg
Sets the filling as it bakes, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Scalded milk
Adds moisture and body, giving the filling a creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the egg mixture beat up light.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet date flavour.

The step that matters

Sieving the cooked dates. Rubbing the cooked dates through a sieve removes skins and fibres. Any left behind can make the filling grainy instead of smooth and custard-like.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon, milk. 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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