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 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 filling
Stew the raisins in a pot until soft.
Thicken the stewed raisins with flour, stirring until it resembles gravy.
Sweeten the mixture with brown sugar to taste.
Pour the raisin mixture into a pie crust.
In a bowl, beat the whole egg and egg yolk with brown sugar.
Dredge the raisins with flour, then pour the egg mixture over them.
Bake and finish
Cover with the second pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
For icing, beat the egg white with powdered sugar and brown lightly on top.
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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Raisins
- Provide the main filling, becoming soft and sweet as they are stewed.
- Flour
- Thickens the stewed raisin liquid into a gravy-like filling.
- Whole egg
- Adds structure and richness when set by the oven heat.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps the filling set smoothly.
- Brown sugar
- Sweetens the filling and adds a deeper caramel flavour.
The step that matters
Thickening the stewed raisins with flour. Flour must be stirred in while the raisins are hot so it hydrates and thickens evenly; stirring less can leave lumps or a thin, runny filling.
“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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