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Dessert

Mary Jordan

A pie with a lemon raisin filling, chocolate filling, and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Mary Jordan

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crust

  1. Rub one cup of flour with two tablespoons of lard together lightly, add a pinch of salt, then three tablespoons of water, possibly a little more, and roll out the dough for the pie crust.

Make the raisin filling

  1. Mix one cup of chopped raisins, the juice and grated rind of one lemon, three-quarters cup of cold water, two tablespoons of flour, three-quarters cup of sugar, and two tablespoons of butter; stir lightly, fill the pie crust, and bake.

Make the chocolate custard and top

  1. Boil one cup of milk, a pinch of salt, and one and one-half squares of bitter chocolate together; mix two level tablespoons of flour with a little water, beat in two yolks, add five tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla, stir well, line your tins with pie crust, add the filling, and bake.

  2. Beat two whites of egg until light, add four tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla, spread over the filling, and set into the oven to brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1189Calories
30 gProtein
48 gFat
158 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 14 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Pienot in our table0
Pie Crustnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the crust and thickens the filling.
Lard
Shortens the crust, keeping it tender and flaky by coating flour strands.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the chocolate custard and add richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a light foam that bakes into a browned topping.
Bitter chocolate
Gives the custard its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Adding the yolks to the chocolate custard. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the hot milk mixture is added to them without care or the custard is overheated, they can scramble and curdle. Stir well and keep the heat moderate so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, sugar, butter, milk, chocolate, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Blackberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, sugar, butter, milk, chocolate, vanilla. 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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