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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A fruit pie made with raisins, currants, sugar, vinegar, butter, spices, and thickened with cornstarch.

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 ↓

Raisin Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine water, currants, and raisins in a pot; bring to a boil.

  2. Add sugar and vinegar to the pot.

  3. Mix cornstarch with a little water until smooth, then add to the pot.

  4. Stir in butter, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  5. Cook until thickened.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a pie crust and bake.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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 sweetness and chewy texture in the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated fruity flavour and chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the filling as it cooks.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a glossy, sliceable filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit and sugar.

The step that matters

Mix cornstarch with a little water until smooth, then add to the pot.. Cornstarch clumps if added dry or unmixed, leaving lumps. Dissolving it in cold water first lets the starch granules disperse evenly so the filling thickens smoothly as it cooks.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, vinegar, sugar, butter, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, vinegar, sugar, butter, cinnamon, clove, 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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