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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with crackers, water, vinegar, butter, molasses, sugar, currants, 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: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

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

  2. Stir in the vinegar, butter, molasses, sugar, currants, raisins, and spices. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake as desired.

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. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 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. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Fine rolled crackers
Soak up liquid and give the filling its body in place of mincemeat fruit and suet.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown during baking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the molasses.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the crackers soften fully. Dry crackers that are not fully softened stay gritty and absorb liquid unevenly. Giving them time in hot water lets the starch hydrate so the filling bakes smooth and holds together.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

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