Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Red Currant 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).
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine currants, flour, sugar, egg yolks, and water.
Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the filling.
Bake until the meringue 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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Currant + flourtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Currants
- Provide the tart fruit flavor and the juicy body of the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the currant juices so the filling sets rather than running.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart currants and helps set the filling and meringue.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the filling as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites need to be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the meringue stays airy and rises over the filling. Under-whipped or greasy whites will weep or collapse during baking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg. 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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