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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with milk crackers, molasses, sugar, vinegar, raisins, currants, egg, butter, spices, and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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 large bowl, mix the rolled milk crackers, cold water, molasses, sugar, vinegar, raisins, currants, beaten egg, and butter.

  2. Add cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to taste.

  3. Fold in the chopped apples.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into pie crusts and bake for about 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk crackers
Crumbled crackers soak up liquid and thicken the filling in place of traditional meat.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Egg
Binds the filling and helps it set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Apples
Provide bulk, moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, spiced filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The beaten egg and cracker starch must set as the filling heats. Underbaking leaves the pie runny, while overbaking can dry it and toughen the egg, so check for a firm center within the stated time range.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, sugar, vinegar, raisin, egg, 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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