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Dessert

Granger Pie

A sweet pie made with molasses, raisins, currants, and spices, baked in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Granger 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.

Prepare the filling

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

  2. In a bowl, combine the fine bread crumbs and hot water; mix well.

  3. Add molasses, raisins, currants, butter, sugar, and spices; stir until combined.

Bake and decorate

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and cover with a second crust, or use a single crust.

  2. Bake until golden brown.

  3. Once baked, frost the top and place dots of crimson jelly on the frosting.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fine bread crumbs
Soak up the hot water and molasses, giving the filling body so it sets rather than running.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich flavor that browns well in the oven.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Currants
Add small pockets of tart sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, a tender texture and smoother mouthfeel in the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The filling is dense and sugary, so it can scorch on the outside before the center sets. Watch the color closely and rely on it, not just the clock, to judge when it is done.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, raisin, butter, 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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