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Dessert

Sour Cream Pie

A baked pie with a sour cream filling flavored with spices, topped with a whipped egg white frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sour Cream 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 the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix vinegar, sour cream, sugar, flour, egg yolks, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake until set and the crust is golden brown.

  2. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar until smooth.

  3. Spread the frosting over the pie after it has cooled.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set during baking, giving it structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it stay soft and tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the filling.
Flour
Helps stabilise the filling so it sets evenly rather than weeping.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it curdle or cracked. Watch for a set centre and a golden crust.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cream, sugar, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cream, sugar, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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