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Dessert

Cracker, or Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made from soaked crackers, molasses, sugar, butter, raisins, vinegar, and spices, baked with pie crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cracker, or 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. 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.

Make the filling

  1. Soak the crackers in boiling water for 10 minutes.

  2. Add molasses, sugar, butter, raisins, vinegar, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to the soaked crackers and mix well until combined.

Bake the pie

  1. Fill a pie dish with the mixture and cover with 2 pie crusts.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the crust is golden brown.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers
Soak up water and form the bulk of the filling in place of fruit.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, deep flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste balanced and full.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Soak the crackers fully. The crackers must soften completely in the boiling water so they blend into a uniform filling. Dry or partly soaked pieces stay firm and leave an uneven texture after baking.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Applefits less well

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