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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with raisins, vinegar, sugar, molasses, crackers, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

three pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine raisins, vinegar, sugar, molasses, rolled crackers, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon in a bowl, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Divide the mixture into three portions for three pies.

  3. For each pie, add 1 tablespoon of butter and mix in.

Bake the pies

  1. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 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

Rolled crackers
Soak up the liquids and thicken the filling, giving it body in place of fruit bulk.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, moist texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and balances the spices.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the filling.

Swap the raisin

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

  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 vinegar, sugar, molasses, clove, allspice, cinnamon, butter. 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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