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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the filling
In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and chopped raisins. Bring to a boil.
Add the lemon juice and rind, and simmer for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the flour with a little water to make a paste.
Stir the paste into the raisin mixture and cook until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding the beaten egg.
Bake
Pour the filling into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the crust is golden.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Raisins
- Provide the main fruit flavour and chewy texture in the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling as it cooks, giving it a sliceable body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps give it a glossy, thick texture.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps set and enrich the filling once it is added off the heat.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the raisins and sugar.
The step that matters
Adding the egg. Eggs can scramble if added to a very hot mixture. Letting the filling cool slightly before stirring in the beaten egg keeps it smooth and lets it thicken evenly during baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, raisin, butter, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, raisin, butter, flour. 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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