Name: Mince Pies Without Meat
Ingredients: 7 cups chopped apples; 2 cups chopped raisins; 1 cup whole raisins; 1 cup vinegar; 2 cups molasses; 3 cups sugar; 1.5 cups boiled cider; 2 nutmegs, grated; coarse sea salt and other spices to taste

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.
Boil the mixture together.
Allow to cool before using for pies.
Store in a cool place; it will keep all winter.

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.

Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide bulk and tart fruit flavour that forms the body of the filling.
Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and a deep, rich flavour to the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it during storage.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

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

Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
Clovebetter flavor fit
Allspicebetter flavor fit
Nutmegthe original

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