Skip to main content
Dessert

Mock Cherry Pie

A fruit pie made with cranberries, raisins, and a cornstarch thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mock Cherry Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine cranberries, raisins, cold water, and sugar.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to bubble.

  3. Stir in vanilla, cornstarch, and salt, mixing well.

  4. Continue cooking until thickened, then remove from heat.

Fill and cool

  1. Pour the filling into a pie crust and let cool before serving.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

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

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

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cranberries
Provide the tart, fruity flavor that gives the pie its cherry-like character.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a glossy filling when heated.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the cranberries.

The step that matters

Continue cooking until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a simmer and is held there briefly. Stopping too early leaves a runny filling, which will loosen further as the pie cools.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes