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Dessert

Biscuit Pie

A pie made with crushed crackers, raisins, sugar, butter, and spices, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Biscuit 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the finely rolled crackers and boiling water; let it sit until softened.

  2. Add the chopped raisins, butter, brown sugar, egg, vinegar, and cold water to the mixture and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pie dish and sprinkle nutmeg and cloves on top.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers
Soften in boiling water to form the body of the filling.
Egg
Binds the filling and helps it set during baking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the sweet filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The egg is the main setting agent. Underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery as the egg proteins tighten too far.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, butter, sugar, nutmeg, clove. 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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