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Dessert

Raisin and Cranberry Pie

A pie with raisins and cranberries, thickened with flour, flavored with vanilla, baked in two pie crusts.

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 and Cranberry Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop cranberries and raisins together.

  2. Combine chopped fruit, water, sugar, and salt in a pot.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Add flour to thicken the mixture.

  5. Stir in vanilla extract.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust.

  2. Cover with the second crust.

  3. Bake until 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Vanilla and sugar 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
Thickens the cooked fruit mixture into a filling that holds its shape when sliced.
Cranberries
Provide tart acidity and body that balances the sweetness of the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps soften the fruit as it cooks.

The step that matters

Add flour to thicken the mixture. Flour must be cooked in the hot fruit liquid so its starch swells and thickens the filling; adding it to a cold or unsimmered mixture can leave lumps or a runny pie.

“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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