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Dessert

Summer Mince Pie

A sweet pie filling of raisins, crackers, and spices cooked in water, sugar, vinegar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Summer Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a pot, combine raisins, water, sugar, vinegar (or lemon juice), and butter.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until well combined.

  3. Stir in the rolled crackers, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

  4. Cook until thickened, then remove from heat.

Bake the pie

  1. Fill the pastry with the mixture and bake.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the filling as it cooks.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and raisins.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and thicken the mixture as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a smooth, rounded flavour.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened, then remove from heat.. The filling thickens as starch and cracker crumbs absorb liquid and as sugar concentrates. Removing it at the right point keeps it spreadable rather than stiff or scorched once it cools.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. 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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