Name: Raisin Pie
Ingredients: 13 cups raisins; 1 cup sugar; 1 lemon, juice and grated rind; 1 cracker

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

13 cups raisins
1 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice and grated rind
1 cracker

Directions

Prepare the raisins

Wash the raisins and cover them with boiling water. Let them stand for 10 minutes, then drain and remove any stones if necessary.

Fill and bake

Add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind and finely crushed cracker to the raisins.
Bake the mixture between two pie crusts for 30 to 35 minutes at 450°F (230°C), then reduce the temperature to 400°F (200°C).

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.

Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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: Form the bulk of the filling and provide chewy texture and natural sweetness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps balance the tart lemon.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the raisins.
Cracker: Absorbs juices from the raisins and helps thicken the filling.