Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry Pie
Ingredients
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a deep pie plate with the pie crust.
Assemble and bake
In a bowl, mix the chopped cranberries, sugar, and egg.
Fill the crust with the cranberry mixture.
Cover with a top crust or strips of dough.
Bake until the crust is golden brown.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart flavour and bulk that defines the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart cranberries and helps balance their acidity.
- Egg
- Binds the chopped cranberries and sugar so the filling holds together when baked.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until the crust is golden brown. Baking long enough sets the egg and thickens the juices so the filling firms, while the crust browns. Underbaking leaves a runny filling and a pale, soggy base.
“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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