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Dessert

Mince Pies

A sweet pie filling of beef, suet, apples, brown sugar, molasses, cider, Sherry, brandy, mixed fruit, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beef, suet, brown sugar, apples, molasses, cider, Sherry, and brandy.

  2. Add the mixed fruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, and mix well.

  3. Taste the mixture; if it's too sweet, add lemon juice to balance the flavor.

Bake

  1. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake according to your pie crust recipe.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cider + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  4. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

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

  5. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and richness that gives the filling its substance.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps keep the filling moist.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Mixed fruit
Adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Taste the mixture before filling the crusts. Sugar, fruit, and spices can make the filling cloyingly sweet, and the flavor is hard to adjust once it is in the crust. Tasting first lets the cook balance sweetness with acid, such as lemon juice, before baking.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, apple, molasses, cider, sherry, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, apple, molasses, cider, sherry, brandy. 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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