Name: Mince Pies
Ingredients: 2 pounds fine raisins, stoned and chopped; 1 pound dried currants, washed and dried; ½ pound citron, cut into slips; 2 pounds meat (beef tongue recommended); Salt to taste; Syrup from preserved fruit, or a mixture of molasses and boiling water (optional); Vinegar-syrup (optional, made from equal parts sugar and cider vinegar)

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

2 pounds fine raisins, stoned and chopped
1 pound dried currants, washed and dried
½ pound citron, cut into slips
2 pounds meat (beef tongue recommended)
Salt to taste
Syrup from preserved fruit, or a mixture of molasses and boiling water (optional)
Vinegar-syrup (optional, made from equal parts sugar and cider vinegar)

Directions

Prepare the meat a day before making the pies by boiling a washed beef tongue in salted water until tender.
Chop the raisins into small pieces using scissors.
Wash and dry the currants thoroughly.
Cut the citron into slips.
Mix all the ingredients together, adjusting the sweetness and sourness with syrup or vinegar-syrup as needed.
Add salt to enhance the flavors, but do not overdo it.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

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

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, meat, beef, syrup, vinegar, sugar, cider):

Applefits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits about as well
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, meat, beef, syrup, vinegar, sugar, cider. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.