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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with crackers, sugar, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Allspice and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,475 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Mock Mince 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 the filling

  1. Crush the crackers into fine crumbs.

  2. In a bowl, mix the crumbs with sugar, molasses, boiling water, butter, vinegar, and eggs.

  3. Add the spices and chopped raisins, stirring until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make two large pies.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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. Allspice + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers
Crushed into crumbs, they thicken the filling and give it body in place of mincemeat fruit.
Eggs
Set during baking, binding the filling so it firms into a sliceable pie.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and a rich flavor typical of mincemeat.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the set filling.
Raisins
Provide chewy pieces of concentrated fruit sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Egg proteins coagulate as the filling heats, so the pie firms up. Pulling it too early leaves a runny center, while overbaking can make the custard-like filling weep or crack.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

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