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Dessert

Gettysburg Mock Mince Pie

A pie made with raisins, currants, thick sour milk, sugar, allspice, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gettysburg 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).

Make the filling

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped raisins, currants, thick sour milk, sugar, salt, and allspice.

  2. Melt the butter and add it to the mixture along with the eggs. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust 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.

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. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  3. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  5. Raisin + sugartop 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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard-like texture when baked.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and contributes to its moist, tender texture.
Thick sour milk
Adds tanginess and moisture, and its acidity balances the sweetness of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender filling.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the pie too early leaves a runny filling, while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery, so check that it is set before removing it.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, milk, sugar, butter, egg. 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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