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Dessert

Washington Pie

A fruit pie made with raisins, currants, baking soda, spices, water, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Washington Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Line a bread pan with pie crust.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine raisins, currants, baking soda, spices, and enough water to achieve the right consistency.

  2. Fill the crust with the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake until done.

  2. Ice the top with water icing.

  3. Cut into squares.

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 + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sweetness and a soft, chewy texture as they absorb moisture while baking.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the fruit filling.
Pie crust
Forms the base that holds the fruit filling in the pan.

The step that matters

Adding the water to the filling. Dried fruit absorbs liquid as it bakes. Too much water makes the filling runny and can soak the crust, while too little leaves the fruit dry and firm. Add water gradually until the mixture is moist but not loose.

“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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