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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A sweet pie with raisins, lemon, sugar, molasses, water, flour, soda cracker, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin 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. In a saucepan, combine raisins, grated lemon, sugar, molasses, and water.

  2. Stir in flour and rolled soda cracker.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and add nuts.

Bake

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust and cover with a second crust.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide the main body of the filling and concentrated sweetness.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and extra sweetness to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the filling as it boils, giving it a set, sliceable texture.
Soda cracker
Helps thicken the filling by absorbing liquid and adding body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it thicken into a glossy texture.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Flour starch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is held there briefly. Stopping early leaves a runny filling that soaks the crust and won't slice cleanly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, molasses, flour, nuts):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, molasses, flour, nuts. 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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