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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A fruit pie made with raisins, citron, currants, sugar, butter, vinegar, and crackers, simmered into a thick filling.

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

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine raisins, citron, currants, boiling water, sugar, butter, vinegar, and rolled crackers.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add lemon extract, vanilla extract, and spices to taste.

  3. Let it simmer until thickened.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the filling as it cooks down.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet fruit flavors.
Boston crackers
Soak up liquid and give the filling body in place of meat.

The step that matters

Simmer until thickened. The filling thickens only as liquid evaporates and the crackers and sugar absorb water. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long can make it sticky and dense.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, sugar, butter, vinegar, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, sugar, butter, vinegar, vanilla. 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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