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Dessert

Mock Mince Pies

A sweet pastry filling made with eggs, crushed crackers, vinegar, spices, sugar, molasses, water, currants, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs.

  2. Add the crushed crackers, vinegar, mixed spice, sugar, molasses, and hot water, then mix well until combined.

Fill and bake

  1. Fold in currants and raisins to taste.

  2. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake 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.

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. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. 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

Eggs
Set as they cook, giving the filling a firm, sliceable body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds moisture.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, deep flavour and sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweet, rich filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins set with gentle heat and then firm the filling. Overbaking tightens them too far, leaving the filling dry, rubbery or curdled.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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