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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with raisins, currants, molasses, and sugar, baked in a 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: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Crush the soda crackers or bread crumbs into a bowl.

  2. Add cold water, molasses, sugar, and vinegar; mix well.

  3. Stir in chopped raisins, currants, melted butter, cinnamon, and cloves.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Soda crackers or bread crumbs
Absorbs liquid and thickens the filling so it sets rather than running.
Molasses
Adds dark color, rich sweetness and a deep flavor to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of molasses and sugar.
Raisins and currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer mouthfeel to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Underbaked filling stays loose and runs when cut, while overbaking can make it dry and tough. Bake until the center no longer jiggles and the filling looks firm, then let it cool so it can firm up fully before slicing.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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