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Nut and Raisin Pilmng

A cooked filling of seeded raisins, sugar, egg and chopped hickory nut meats, spread between cake layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Nut and Raisin Pilmng

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Boil the raisins in a little water until tender.

  2. Add the sugar and boil for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg or egg yolks and cook until thickened.

  4. Remove from the stove and mix in the chopped hickory nut meats.

Assemble

  1. Once cool, spread the mixture between layers.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + meattop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Soften in water and add sweetness and body to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it thicken as it boils.
Beaten egg or egg yolks
Thickens the filling as it cooks and binds it into a spreadable mass.
Hickory nut meats
Add chopped nut texture and a rich, toasty flavor.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg and cook until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the mixture. Cooking gently while stirring prevents the egg from scrambling into lumps, and the filling must be cooked enough to thicken before it is removed from the heat.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, meat. 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.