Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine the seeded raisins, cream, and sugar.
Mix well until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Assemble and bake
Cover with another pie crust and seal the edges.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,642 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Seeded raisins
- Provide the main sweet flavor and chewy texture in the filling.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a soft, creamy body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown in the oven.
- Pie crusts
- Enclose the filling, holding it in shape while it bakes.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar fully. Sugar must dissolve completely into the cream and raisin mixture, otherwise the filling stays gritty and uneven. Dissolved sugar blends evenly through the liquid, giving a smooth, consistent filling as it bakes.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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