Name: Mock Mince Pie
Ingredients: 8 crackers, crushed; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup boiling water; 1 cup chopped raisins; ⅔ cup vinegar; butter the size of an egg; assorted spices to taste

Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Crush the crackers and place them in a mixing bowl.
Add sugar, molasses, boiling water, chopped raisins, vinegar, and butter. Mix well until combined.
Add assorted spices to taste.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake 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.

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.

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).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers: Crushed crackers soak up liquid and give the filling its body in place of traditional mincemeat.
Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter depth of flavour.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Vinegar: Adds a sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a softer mouthfeel.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits about as well
Raisinthe original
Figfits about as well
Strawberryfits about as well

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