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To Make Mince Pies in a Plain Way

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Make Mince Pies in a Plain Way

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the roasted beef, apples, lemon rind, and beef suet finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the currants, raisins, ground cloves, and sifted sugar.

  3. Add the lemon juice, brandy, verjuice or white wine, and salt to the mixture.

  4. Mix everything well and transfer to a pot, covering it tightly.

  5. Store in a cool, dry place. This mixture will keep for five months.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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

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