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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with milk, sugar, molasses, raisins, butter, spices, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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.

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine milk, sugar, vinegar, molasses, chopped raisins, and butter.

  2. Add cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to taste.

  3. Stir all ingredients together, then add boiling water and stir again.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and cover with a second crust.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until 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.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides liquid and helps the filling set into a custard-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown during baking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich flavor of the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and moisture to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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