Why it works: Sugar and flour 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 ↓
Blackberry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the sugar and flour together to prevent the juice from boiling out.
Add the blackberries to the mixture.
If needed, add a little water.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until bubbly.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Blackberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and the juice that forms the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps balance the tartness of the berries.
- Flour
- Thickens the released berry juices as the filling heats, so it holds its shape.
The step that matters
Bake until bubbly. Flour only thickens the juices once the filling gets hot enough to bubble. Pulling the pie out earlier leaves a runny filling that may not set when sliced.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.