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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with crushed crackers, sugar, molasses, raisins, spices, and butter, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Crush the Boston crackers and place them in a mixing bowl.

  2. Add sugar, molasses, melted butter, vinegar, chopped raisins, cloves, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and water. Mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Boston crackers
Crushed crackers take the place of meat, giving the filling body and a crumbly texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set and brown as it bakes.
Molasses
Provides dark color, rich flavor and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the dark flavors.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling thickens as it bakes and the crackers absorb liquid. Baking only until set keeps the filling moist and prevents it from becoming dry or cracked.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, pepper. 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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