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Dessert

Washington Pie

A sweet pie made with fine crumbs, molasses, raisins, currants, baking soda, spices, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine fine crumbs, molasses, raisins, currants, baking soda, and assorted spices.

  2. Add enough water to form a stiff dough.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a pie pan with pie crust.

  2. Fill the crust with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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).

  2. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + curranttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,817 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Fine crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the mixture together as a stiff dough.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the filling.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the mixture and deepen its color.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Add water until the dough is stiff. Too much water loosens the mixture so it spreads and does not hold its shape or set firmly in the oven. Add it gradually and stop when the dough is stiff, since the crumbs absorb liquid and firm up as they bake.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Datesfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, raisin. 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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