Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a pie pan with flaky crust, dusting the bottom with flour.
Fill and assemble
Mix the cherries, sugar, and flour together and place in the lined pan.
Dot the mixture with small pieces of butter, pushing them down into the fruit.
Cover with a top crust as usual.
Bake
Bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) for the remaining baking time.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit filling, supplying moisture and tart flavor that the pie is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juice from the cherries.
- Flour
- Thickens the cherry juices into a set filling as the pie bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the filling as it melts into the fruit.
The step that matters
Reducing the oven heat after 10 minutes. Starting hot sets the crust and browns it early, then lowering the heat lets the cherry filling cook through and thicken without the crust scorching.
“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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