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Dessert

Sham Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with crushed crackers, molasses, raisins, and eggs, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sham Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush the crackers finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine water, vinegar, butter, molasses, and beaten eggs.

  2. Add the crushed crackers and raisins.

  3. Mix in spices and sugar to taste.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Eggs
Set the filling into a custard-like structure as they bake.
Crackers
Provide bulk and body to the filling in place of fruit.
Molasses
Adds dark color and deep, sweet flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp tang that balances the sweetness of molasses.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the pie too early leaves a runny filling, while overbaking can make it weep or turn rubbery.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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