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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A sweet pie filled with raisins, wine or water, lemon zest and juice, butter, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and raisin 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

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

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix in the raisins, wine or water, lemon rind, lemon juice, and rolled cracker crumbs.

  2. Fill a pie crust with the mixture.

  3. Place strips of pastry across the top.

  4. Bake until golden brown.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it turn syrupy and rich as it bakes.
Seedless raisins
Provide the main filling, adding chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender mouthfeel to the filling.
Lemon rind and juice
Adds bright acidity and aroma that balances the sweetness of the sugar and raisins.
Rolled cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid from the filling so it sets thick rather than runny.

The step that matters

Baking until golden brown. The filling is wet and sugary, so it needs enough oven time to thicken and cook through under the pastry. Pulling it early can leave a runny filling, while over-baking can scorch the sugar and crust.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, wine, lemon, butter. 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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