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; Sweet and sour liquid (e.g., syrup from preserved fruit, water with jelly, or vinegar-syrup)

Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. 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
Sweet and sour liquid (e.g., syrup from preserved fruit, water with jelly, or vinegar-syrup)

Directions

Prepare the meat a day before making the pies by boiling a washed beef tongue in water with a handful of salt until tender.
Chop the raisins into small bits, about three pieces each.
Wash and dry the currants thoroughly.
Cut the citron into slips.
Mix the raisins, currants, and citron together.
Add salt to taste and a sweet and sour liquid to balance the flavors.

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.

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).
Raisin + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + beeftop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,273 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + meattop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together484 recipes

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