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Dessert

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

A pie filled with raisins, sour cream, sugar, spices, and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sour Cream Raisin 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine cooked raisins, sour cream, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and cornstarch or flour.

  2. Add the egg yolks to the mixture and mix well.

  3. Pour the filling into a pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the filling.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the meringue is golden.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sour cream
Adds richness and a tangy flavour that balances the sugar in the filling.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling while whites are whipped into the meringue that sets and browns on top.
Cornstarch or flour
Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue brown.
Cooked raisins
Provide chewy texture and the main fruity sweetness in the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks with no trace of yolk or grease, otherwise the meringue will not hold its volume or brown evenly. Egg yolk and fat interfere with foam formation.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cream, sugar, cinnamon, flour, 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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