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Mince Pie

A spiced meat pie filling of ground beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, brown sugar, sherry, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, chopped suet, chopped apples, raisins, currants, and chopped citron.

  2. Add the ground mace, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, ground cloves, coarse sea salt, ground nutmeg, and brown sugar to the mixture.

  3. Pour in the brown sherry and brandy, and mix well.

  4. Store the mixture in stone jars with double covers in a cool place for at least one day.

  5. If the mixture becomes too dry, add a little more liquor.

Bake and serve

  1. When ready to bake, fill pie crusts with the mince meat and bake until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef
Provides meaty body and richness that gives the filling its traditional substance.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and carries flavor through the mixture.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the dried fruit and sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it rests.
Brandy
Adds liquor that moistens the mixture and preserves it during storage.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Storing the mixture to rest. Resting for at least a day lets the spices, fruit, and liquor blend and soften together. Keeping it cool slows spoilage while the flavors develop.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, mace, cinnamon, allspice, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, mace, cinnamon, allspice, clove. 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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