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Dessert

Mock Mince Pies

A non‑meat pie made with crackers, molasses, sugar, vinegar, raisins, spices, butter, and eggs, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a pot, combine the crackers, molasses, sugar, vinegar, boiling water, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and beaten eggs.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake as you would for traditional mince pies.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Pounded crackers
Provide bulk and body, standing in for the dried fruit and meat of traditional mincemeat.
Molasses
Adds dark color, sweetness and a deep, rich flavor to the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the molasses.
Well-beaten eggs
Help the filling set as it cooks, giving it a firmer, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 5 minutes, then cool before adding the eggs. Boiling thickens the filling and softens the crackers. Stirring the eggs in off the heat keeps them from scrambling, so they set smoothly during baking rather than turning grainy.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, 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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