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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A pie made with raisins, sugar, water, corn starch, butter, and pie crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisin Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Cook the cleaned raisins with sugar and enough water to cover them until done.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch and butter mixed together.

  3. Add flavoring of your choice.

Bake

  1. Bake with two pie crusts.

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

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

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Raisin + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides 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 bulk and a concentrated, chewy sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften and sweeten the cooked raisins.
Corn starch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a sliceable filling as it heats.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the filling.
Pie crusts
Form the enclosure that holds the filling and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring in the corn starch. Cornstarch only thickens when it is heated in liquid, so the filling must be hot enough for the starch to swell. If it is not heated enough, the filling stays thin and runny, or tastes starchy when cooled.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, butter. 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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