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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A pie made with crushed crackers, molasses, sugar, vinegar, tea, raisins, butter, spices, salt, and egg, baked until set.

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

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 ↓

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. 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

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

  2. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  3. Crush the crackers and add to the egg.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in molasses, sugar, vinegar, strong tea, chopped raisins, butter, spices, and salt.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-40 minutes or 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.

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. 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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 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

Crackers
Crumbs soak up the liquids and give the filling body in place of traditional mincemeat.
Egg
Binds the filling and helps it set firm when baked.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown as it bakes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the molasses.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The egg is the main setting agent, so the filling must be baked until it firms. Pulling it early leaves a runny center, while overbaking can make the egg curdle and the filling tough.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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