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Mince Pie

A savory-sweet pie made with boiled beef, suet, apples, molasses, sugar, raisins, currants, citron, spices, brandy, vinegar, butter, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped beef, suet, apples, molasses, sugar, raisins, currants, and citron.

  2. Add nutmeg, mace, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice to taste.

  3. Stir in the brandy and vinegar, then mix well.

  4. Place the mixture on the stove in a porcelain kettle and let it simmer for 2 hours without boiling.

  5. If the mixture is too bland, add more vinegar.

Store and finish

  1. Store in glass fruit jars until needed.

  2. When ready to use, add butter and a little wine to achieve your desired consistency.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a moist, tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and moisture to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich mixture.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. Holding the mixture just below a boil lets the apples soften and the flavors blend without scorching the sugars and molasses on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, molasses, sugar, raisin, currant, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, molasses, sugar, raisin, currant, nutmeg. 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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