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Dessert

Mock Mince Meat

A sweet, spiced mixture of crackers, molasses, sugar, fruit, and spices, traditionally used as a dessert filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll soda crackers finely and set aside.

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large bowl, combine cold water, molasses, brown sugar, sour cider or vinegar, and melted butter or chopped suet.

  2. Add the rolled crackers, raisins, currants, beaten eggs, cinnamon, cloves, salt, nutmeg, chopped apples, and beef broth, then mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.

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

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

  2. Cider + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Crumbed crackers soak up liquid and thicken the filling into a soft, spoonable body.
Molasses
Adds dark color, rich sweetness and a deep, slightly bitter flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set slightly when cooked.
Apples
Provide moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a tender, mellow texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, cider, butter, raisin, egg, 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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