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Dessert

Mock Mince Meat

A sweet, spiced mock mince made from crackers, butter, molasses, cider, raisins, currants, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. Mash the crackers finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the butter, molasses, cider, and mashed crackers.

  3. Seed the raisins and clean the currants, then add them to the mixture along with the spices.

Cook and cool

  1. Cook the mixture over low heat for about 20 minutes.

  2. Remove from the stove and let it cool in a cool place.

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

Crackers
Mashed crackers give body and bulk, standing in for the texture of meat in mincemeat.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, deep flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat. Gentle heat lets the mixture thicken and blend flavours without scorching the sugar and molasses on the bottom of the pan, which would give a bitter taste.

Swap the currant

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

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

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