Name: Mock Mince Meat
Ingredients: 1 cup sour cider; 6 soda crackers, rolled fine; 2 cups cold water; ½ cup melted butter; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup currants; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup chopped raisins

Why it works: Cider and currant work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 500 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Mock Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine sour cider, rolled soda crackers, and cold water.
Stir in melted butter, molasses, currants, brown sugar, and chopped raisins. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

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.

Cider + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soda crackers: Crushed crackers soak up liquid and thicken the filling, giving it body without flour.
Molasses: Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses notes deepen the flavor.
Sour cider: Adds acidity that brightens the sweet dried fruit and balances the molasses.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.

Swap the currant

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

Applefits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits about as well
Currantthe original

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