Name: Mock Mince Meat
Ingredients: 1 cup raisins; 2 cups sugar; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup vinegar; Pastry crust for two pies

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Meat

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine raisins, sugar, egg, butter, bread crumbs, and vinegar, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a pastry crust.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,111 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

Raisins: Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness in the filling.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling set into a thick, rich texture.
Egg: Binds the filling together and helps it set when baked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the filling body in place of meat.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and mimics the tang of traditional mincemeat.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Raisinthe original

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