Skip to main content
Dessert

Summee Mince Pies

A sweet pie filling made from bread crumbs, molasses, sugar, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Summee Mince Pies

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.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, molasses, sugar, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, butter, and water, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven 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.

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Add body to the filling and absorb liquid so it holds together.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender mouthfeel.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling firms as the eggs and starches set during baking, so it should be baked until just set. Underbaking leaves it runny and difficult to slice, while overbaking dries it out and can make the crust overly dark.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

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

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspiceabout as good a flavor fit

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

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes