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Dessert

Mince Pies

A sweet pie made with water, molasses, sugar, egg, vinegar, crushed crackers, raisins, butter, spices, and grated nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine water, molasses, sugar, beaten egg, and vinegar.

  3. Add crushed Boston crackers, stoned raisins, butter, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. Mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make three pies.

  2. Grate nutmeg over each pie before adding the upper crust.

  3. Bake the pies slowly for about 45 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling and helps it set into a firm, sliceable texture.
Boston crackers
Crushed crackers add bulk and absorb liquid, giving the filling body.
Stoned raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the filling and carries the spice flavor.

The step that matters

Bake the pies slowly for about 45 minutes. A low oven at 300°F lets the egg-thickened filling set gently without curdling or drying out, so the pies stay moist and smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, egg, vinegar, raisin, butter, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, vinegar, raisin, butter, cinnamon. 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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