Skip to main content
Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with bread crumbs, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, butter, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine bread crumbs, cold water, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, melted butter, and chopped raisins in a large bowl, then mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake until set.

  2. Let cool before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, deep sweetness, and robust flavor of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body so it can set into a sliceable texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while contributing to the filling's caramel-like flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pie.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the intense sweetness of the molasses and sugar.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling is mostly liquid when poured in, and it firms as the starch and bread crumbs absorb liquid and cool. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make it dry, stiff, or cracked. Letting it cool before cutting allows the filling to finish setting.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, sugar, vinegar, 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes