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Dessert

Fruit Pie

A layered pie of sour apples and raisins baked in pie crust with sugar, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a two-quart tin basin, place a layer of pie crust at the bottom.

  3. Add a two-inch thick layer of chopped sour apples.

  4. Layer chopped raisins on top and sprinkle with sugar, butter, and spices.

  5. Repeat layering with crust and fruit until the dish is full.

  6. Cover with a final layer of crust on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake slowly for two hours.

  2. Once done, turn the pie bottom side up on a plate.

  3. Before serving, sprinkle fine sugar over the top.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and tart flavor that balances the sugar.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps draw out juices as the fruit cooks.
Pie crust
Forms the layered structure that holds the fruit and browns during baking.

The step that matters

Bake slowly for two hours. Apples and raisins release juice as they cook, and a long low bake lets the fruit soften and the filling thicken without the crust burning. Baking too hot risks scorching the crust before the apples are tender.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, butter, clove, nutmeg. 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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