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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with bread crumbs, sugar, vinegar, butter, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 bread crumbs, sugar, vinegar, butter, molasses, raisins, and spices. Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Frost with lightly beaten egg whites mixed with powdered sugar.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the filling and soak up the liquid to give body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set and brown lightly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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