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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with molasses, raisins, spices, and a soda cracker crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush the soda crackers finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine hot water, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and melted butter.

  2. Add the chopped raisins and spices to the mixture. Stir until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake as desired.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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 + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Soda crackers
Crumbs thicken the filling and give it body as they absorb the liquid.
Molasses
Provides dark color, deep flavor and moisture to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the filling set and brown.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness of the molasses and sugar.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier texture.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, vinegar, butter, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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