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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with soda crackers, molasses, raisins, currants, spices, and brandy, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Crush the soda crackers and soak them in cold water.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the soaked crackers, molasses, brown sugar, melted butter, raisins, currants, and beaten eggs.

  3. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, salt, and black pepper. Mix well.

  4. Stir in the brandy or cider.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, about 30‑40 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

Soda crackers
Soaked and crushed, they thicken the filling and give it body in place of flour.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich flavor typical of mincemeat.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel notes that deepen the filling's flavor.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat; underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it dry, tough, or cracked. Check for a firm center rather than relying only on the time.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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