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Minced Pies

A savory pie filled with a mixture of beef, apples, candied peel, currants, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Minced Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the beef suet and lean beef or tripe.

  2. Chop the apples, candied orange and lemon peel, and candied citron.

  3. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare your tart pans with pastry dough.

  2. Fill the pans with the minced mixture.

  3. Cover with puff pastry.

  4. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Orange + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Lean raw beef or tripe
Provides the meaty body of the filling once cooked.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Currants
Add chewy sweetness and body to the filling.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it stay soft and moist.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. The filling is cooked through in the oven while the pastry browns, so the cook should watch for golden color on the top crust and not pull the pies too early.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, orange, lemon, sugar, ginger, allspice):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, orange, lemon, sugar, ginger, allspice. 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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