Skip to main content
Main

Mock Mince Pie

A pie made with crackers, spices, cider, molasses, raisins, and a custard-like filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

This recipe’s ingredient list has no crust or pastry, so it bakes more like a fruit dish than a pastry pie.

From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Illustration of Mock Mince PieIllustration

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,917 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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 the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine rolled crackers, cinnamon, boiled cider, molasses, cloves, chopped raisins, sugar, vinegar, hot water, and nutmeg, and mix well until combined.

  3. In another bowl, mix dried currants, allspice, sour cream, and egg.

  4. Combine both mixtures and stir until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the filling into two pie crusts.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden.

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.

The picture is an illustration, not a photo of this recipe · 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Rolled crackers
Soaks up liquid and gives the filling body in place of traditional meat.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and a rich, sticky texture.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, and helps make the filling creamy.
Egg
Binds the filling so it sets when baked.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavor and natural sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown slightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Combining the two mixtures until smooth. Stirring both mixtures fully together distributes the egg and sour cream evenly, so the filling sets uniformly rather than in patches when baked.

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

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

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Orangeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, cider, molasses, clove, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Molasses SauceIllustrationMolasses Sauce32 recipesIllustration of Ham in CiderIllustrationHam in Cider10 recipesIllustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipes