Skip to main content
Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie filling made with molasses, apples, raisins, currants, spices, and butter, baked in a crust.

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

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 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

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

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the soda crackers, cold water, molasses, brown sugar, sour cider or vinegar, melted butter, raisins, currants, beaten egg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and chopped apples, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake for 30-40 minutes or 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. 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

Apples
Provide bulk, moisture and tartness that balances the sweet molasses and sugar.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel-like flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while helping the filling taste rich.
Egg
Binds the filling so it sets firm when baked.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Soda crackers
Thicken the filling by absorbing liquid and give it body.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The beaten egg and crumbed crackers set the filling as it heats. Pulling the pie too early leaves a runny center, while baking too long can dry it out and toughen the custard-like 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.

More mincemeat pie recipes

Mock 26 See all 21 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipes