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Dessert

Raisin Pie

A pie made with raisins, sugar, lemon, butter, and egg, baked between two crusts.

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

Make the filling

  1. Boil the raisins in enough water to cover them until soft.

  2. Add sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, and butter to the raisins.

  3. Beat the egg lightly and stir it into the mixture before removing from the stove.

Bake

  1. Bake the mixture between two crusts.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Soften in water to form the sweet, chewy body of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps give it a thick, glossy texture.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar and raisins.
Egg
Thickens the filling as it heats, helping it set into a sliceable pie.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg before removing from the stove. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding it while the filling is still hot thickens it evenly. If removed from heat first, the egg may stay thin and fail to set properly in the pie.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

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