Name: Mince Pies
Ingredients: 4 pounds apples (Kentish pippins), chopped very fine; 2 pounds currants; 2 pounds raisins, stoned; 2 pounds suet, chopped; Mace, to taste; Brandy, to taste; Lemon peel, to taste; Lemon juice, to taste

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the apples very fine and combine them with currants, stoned raisins, and chopped suet in a large bowl.
Add mace, brandy, lemon peel, and lemon juice to the mixture and mix well.
Transfer the mixture to a jar and cover it with a paper wetted with brandy.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,791 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, currant, raisin, brandy, lemon):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Clovefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, currant, raisin, brandy, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.