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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with molasses, raisins, spices, and soda crackers, baked to a set consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the finely rolled soda crackers, molasses, hot water, sugar, vinegar, melted butter, and chopped raisins.

  2. Add the ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg to the mixture and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make four pies.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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 + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soda crackers
Crushed crackers soak up the liquid and give the filling body in place of fruit-based thickening.
Molasses
Provides dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, caramel-like flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet molasses and balances the flavor.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling thickens as it bakes and cools. Underbaking leaves it runny, while the sugar and molasses can scorch if the oven runs too hot, so watch for a firm center.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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