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Mince Meat for Two Pies

A savory filling made from boiled calf's tongue, apples, suet, orange, and spices, for two pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat for Two Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. Boil the calf's tongue until tender, then let it cool.

  2. Chop the tongue finely.

Mix the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped tongue, apples, suet, orange rind and juice, brown sugar, raisins, shredded citron, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

  2. Moisten the mixture with cider or orange juice to 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's tongue
Provides the meaty bulk and rich body of the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tart flavour that balances the sweetness.
Suet
Adds fat that gives a moist, rich texture as it softens.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the filling a deep, mellow flavour.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture. Add the cider or orange juice gradually. Too much liquid makes the filling soggy and can leak during baking, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, cider):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, cider. 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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