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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A sweet pie filling made 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

Make the filling

  1. In a pot, combine chopped 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. Bake the filling between two pie crusts like a mince pie.

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 chewy body and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the filling as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich flavor.
Flour
Thickens the filling as it boils, giving it a set, spreadable texture.
Soda cracker
Adds starch that helps the filling thicken as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Flour and cracker starch only thicken once heated to a boil. Stopping early leaves a runny filling that soaks the crust, so cook until the mixture visibly thickens.

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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