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Dessert

Date Pie

A pie made with dates, milk, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Date 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.

Make the filling

  1. Simmer the dates in enough milk to cover them until soft.

  2. Sift the dates through a sieve to remove the stones.

  3. Add sugar, egg yolks, cinnamon, and boiled milk to the dates and mix well.

  4. Pour the mixture into deep lined pie plates and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Frost and brown

  1. Whip the egg whites and frost the pies, adding vanilla to the frosting.

  2. Brown the frosting nicely before serving.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Dates + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Dates
Provide the main sweet fruit body and bulk of the filling once softened and sifted.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as it sets, giving it a custard-like body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the frosting topping, which then browns in the oven.
Boiled milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the filling, helping it set smoothly.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the frosting brown.

The step that matters

Sifting the dates. Sifting removes stones and breaks down the softened fruit into a smooth purée. Lumps or stones left behind leave an uneven, gritty filling that will not set evenly.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

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