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Dessert

Mock Mince-pie

A pie made from crushed crackers, molasses, currants, raisins, and spices, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Mince-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the crushed crackers and hot water.

  2. Add the vinegar, molasses, sugar, currants, raisins, and spices. Mix well.

  3. If using, stir in the dried bread crumbs and melted butter.

Bake

  1. Divide the mixture into four pie crusts 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.

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

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

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 the hot water and give the filling its body.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, moist texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds to its thick, syrupy body.
Currants
Contribute chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the molasses and sugar.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

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