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Dessert

Raisin and Rhubarb Pie

A pie filled with rhubarb, raisins, sugar, lemon, and egg, baked between two crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 546 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Raisin and Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cover rhubarb with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes, then drain the rhubarb.

  2. Mix rhubarb and raisins in a bowl.

  3. Add sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind, and egg to the mixture.

Bake the pie

  1. Pour the filling between two pie crusts.

  2. Bake at 450°F (230°C) for 10 minutes.

  3. Reduce temperature to 400°F (200°C) and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes.

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. Rhubarb + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rhubarb + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. 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

Rhubarb
Provides tart flavor and moisture that softens into the filling as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness that balances the rhubarb's tartness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the sharp acidity of rhubarb and lemon.
Egg
Binds the filling and helps it set as it bakes.

The step that matters

Draining the rhubarb after scalding. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid when heated. Draining it well keeps the filling from becoming watery, which can make the pie soggy and stop it from setting properly.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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