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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie with Eggs

A sweet pie made from powdered crackers, sugar, molasses, vinegar, butter, raisins, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie with Eggs

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the powdered crackers, sugar, molasses, vinegar, and butter.

  2. Mix in the chopped raisins and beaten eggs.

  3. Add spice to taste and stir until well combined.

  4. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake for 30-40 minutes or 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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Crackers
Finely powdered crackers give the filling body and replace the bulk that mincemeat usually gets from suet or fruit.
Eggs
Beaten eggs set during baking, helping the filling firm up into a sliceable pie.
Molasses
Molasses adds dark sweetness and a deep, rich flavor to the filling.
Sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps give the filling a tender, moist texture.
Butter
Butter adds richness and fat, which carries flavor and softens the filling.
Raisins
Chopped raisins add chewy fruit texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling relies on the eggs to set during baking. Pulling it too early leaves it runny, while the sugar and molasses can darken quickly if baked too long.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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