Name: Mock Mince Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup water; ¼ cup butter; ½ cup vinegar; 3 slices wheat bread, crumbled; raisins (to taste); spices (to taste)

Why it works: Butter and bread 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

In a bowl, combine sugar, molasses, and water.
Melt the butter and mix it with the vinegar.
Add the crumbled bread, raisins, and spices to the mixture.
Stir until well combined.
Prepare two pie crusts and fill one with the mixture.
Cover with the second crust and seal the edges.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

Swap the raisin

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

Figfits better
Vanillafits about as well
Applefits about as well
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, vinegar, wheat, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.