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 ↓
Mock Cherry 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.
Make the pastry
Cut shortening into flour and add salt.
Add water one spoonful at a time; do not knead.
Pinch dough into balls, turn out on a board, and roll it out.
Place the rolled dough in a pie pan and trim the edges.
Make the filling
In a bowl, mix sugar and flour dry.
Pour boiling water over the sugar and flour mixture and cook until boiling.
Add the halved cranberries and raisins to the mixture, then add vanilla.
Assemble and bake
Pour the filling into the uncooked pastry.
Cut leftover pastry into lattice strips and place over the pie.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,730 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together782 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles to keep the pastry tender and flaky rather than tough.
- Cranberries
- Provide tartness and bulk, giving the filling its cherry-like bite.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, with the flour, thickens it as it cooks.
- Flour
- Thickens the boiling water into a filling that holds its shape when sliced.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until boiling. Flour starch only thickens fully once it boils in liquid, so the filling must reach a full boil before it goes into the pie or it may stay runny.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, flour, vanilla, butter):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, flour, vanilla, butter. 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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