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Dessert

Mock Mince-meat, Without Meat

A sweet fruit preserve made with raisins, molasses, brown sugar, spices, and brandy.

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, Without Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine cold water and raisins; cook for a few minutes.

  2. Add brown sugar and molasses, then cider vinegar, and mix well.

  3. Stir in melted butter, beaten egg, rolled cracker crumbs, and spices.

  4. Finally, add brandy and mix 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 + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 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

Raisins
Provide chewy body and natural sweetness that give the preserve its fruity bulk.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor and moisture while sweetening the mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet fruit and balances the molasses.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps it set into a cohesive filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the spices and gives a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the raisins in water. Simmering the raisins softens them and draws out their flavor before the sugar and other ingredients are added. Stop once they are tender so the fruit does not break down into a paste.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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