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 ↓
Mock Cherry 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
In a bowl, mix cranberries, raisins, sugar, and flour.
Add boiling water and stir until combined.
Cook over medium heat until cranberries are soft and mixture is smooth.
Fill and bake
Pour filling into a pre-baked pie shell or bake with a top crust at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart, sharp flavour and soften into the body of the filling.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and a chewy texture that mimics cherries.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps give it a glossy, jammy body.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling as it heats, so it holds together when sliced.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until smooth. Flour only thickens fully when the mixture is heated long enough, and undercooked flour leaves the filling pasty and cloudy. Cook until the cranberries soften and the mixture turns smooth before filling the 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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