Skip to main content
Main

Mock Mince Meat, Without Meat

A vegetarian mince-like mixture of raisins, spices, and butter simmered in water, molasses, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Meat, Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine cold water and raisins; cook for a few minutes.

  2. Add brown sugar and molasses to the saucepan.

  3. Stir in cider vinegar and the remaining ingredients.

  4. Finally, mix in the brandy.

Cook and store

  1. Cook until heated through, then remove from heat and let cool before storing.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide chewy bulk and natural sweetness that give the filling its body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth as it dissolves into the liquid.
Molasses
Contributes dark color, moisture and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet spices and balances the sugar.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and carries the spice flavors.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set slightly when heated.

The step that matters

Cook until heated through, then cool. Heating the egg-containing mixture thoroughly helps it set and makes it safe to store, while cooling before storing prevents condensation and keeps flavors settled.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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

You might also like

Molasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipesHam in CiderHam in Cider10 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes