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Dessert

Mince Pies

A preserved meat mixture of beef heart and tongue with apples, currants, raisins, suet, molasses, cider, sugar, spices, brandy, and citron.

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 meat

  1. Boil the beef heart and tongue until tender.

  2. Chop the meat finely and season with pepper and salt.

Mix and store

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, apples, currants, raisins, and suet.

  2. Add molasses, cider, sugar, spices, brandy, and citron to taste.

  3. Store the mixture in a jar, pouring molasses over it to preserve. This will keep all winter.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef heart
Provides the bulk of the meat filling, becoming tender when boiled and then finely chopped.
Beef tongue
Adds meaty body to the filling once boiled and finely chopped.
Suet
Adds fat that gives the filling richness and a moist, soft texture.
Apples
Adds moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit and sugar.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth, and its coating helps preserve the mixture in the jar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Store the mixture in a jar, pouring molasses over it to preserve. Sugar and molasses draw water out of the filling and limit microbial growth, but only if the mixture is fully covered and kept sealed from air and contamination.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, apple, raisin, molasses, cider, sugar. 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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