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Mock Mince Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

This recipe’s ingredient list has no crust or pastry, so it bakes more like a fruit dish than a pastry pie.

By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Illustration of Mock Mince PieIllustration

Why it works: Vinegar and cider match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 402 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

  1. 4 crackers II/2 cupfuls of sugar

  2. 1 cupful molasses 1 cupful of vinegar or

  3. 1 cupful water boiled cider

  4. y2 cupful of butter 1 cupful of seeded raisins

  5. Two eggs beaten and stirred in the last thing. Spice to taste. Lettie Carpenter.

By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

The picture is an illustration, not a photo of this recipe · 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vinegar + cidertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,480 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + cidertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together557 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

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

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Currantbetter flavor fit
  3. Figbetter flavor fit
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, vinegar, egg, cider, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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