Name: Cracker Mince Pies
Ingredients: 14 crackers, crushed; 2 cups molasses; 2 cups sugar; 3 cups cider; 2 cups seeded raisins; ½ cup butter; spices to taste; juice of 1 lemon

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 ↓

Cracker Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Crush the crackers into fine crumbs.

Make the filling

In a large bowl, combine the crushed crackers, molasses, sugar, cider, raisins, butter, and spices, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Add the lemon juice and stir until incorporated.

Bake

Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake as desired.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 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).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers: Crushed crackers form the bulk of the filling and soak up the cider and molasses.
Molasses: Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and a rich flavor to the filling.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps balance the strong molasses flavor.
Cider: Supplies liquid that moistens the crumbs and carries the spices through the filling.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness throughout the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and a soft, tender mouthfeel to the filling.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

Applebetter flavor fit
Figbetter flavor fit
Vanillabetter flavor fit
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, cider, raisin, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.