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Rhubarb-raisin Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, raisins, and sugar, baked in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and raisin work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rhubarb-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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the prepared rhubarb, seedless raisins, and sugar.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place one pie crust in a pie dish and fill it with the rhubarb and raisin mixture.

  2. Cover with the second pie crust and seal the edges.

  3. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.

  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

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. Rhubarb + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour that balances the sugar and fills the pie.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juices from the rhubarb and raisins.
Pie crusts
Form the structure that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cut slits in the top crust. Slits let steam escape while the filling heats. Without them, steam builds pressure under the crust, which can crack it and make the filling bubble out and soak the crust.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Rhubarbthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar. 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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