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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with raisins, molasses, sugar, vinegar, tea, and crackers, baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Crush the crackers into fine crumbs.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, molasses, sugar, vinegar, strong tea, chopped raisins, and butter.

  2. Add the crushed crackers, spices, and salt to the mixture.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the filling and helps it set as it bakes.
Crackers
Crumbs thicken the filling and give it body in place of meat or fruit bulk.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, deep flavor to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the filling's overall flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The egg is the main setting agent, so the filling needs to bake until it firms. Pulling it too early can leave a runny center, while overbaking can make the egg curdle and the texture grainy.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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