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Dessert

Mince Pies

A savory and sweet pie filling made with boiled meat, suet, fruit, spices, and alcohol, baked in pie crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Mince Pies

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil and chop the meat.

  2. Combine the chopped meat with suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, and sugar in a large bowl.

  3. Add brandy, wine, strong coffee, boiled cider, and spices to the mixture.

  4. Grate the nutmeg and add the lemon rind and juice.

  5. Mix well and adjust sweetness with molasses if needed.

  6. Moisten the mixture with the stock from boiling the meat.

Bake

  1. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake as desired.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled meat
Provides the savory, meaty body that gives the filling its bulk.
Beef suet
Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the filling rich and moist.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and body to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and acidity.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor while helping preserve the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beef, apple, raisin, sugar, brandy, wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, apple, raisin, sugar, brandy, wine. 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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