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Mince Pie

A savory pie filled with boiled beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, cider, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare two pie crusts.

  2. In a large bowl, mix the boiled beef, chopped suet, chopped apples, raisins, currants, chopped citron, sugar, cider, and alcohol.

  3. Add cinnamon, mace, and cloves to the mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the prepared pie crusts with the mince-meat mixture.

  2. Cover with the second crust, seal the edges, and cut slits in the top.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled beef
Provides the meaty body and richness of the traditional filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown in the oven.
Cider
Adds liquid and fruity acidity that moistens and flavours the mixture.

The step that matters

Sealing and slitting the top crust. A well-sealed edge keeps the moist, sugary filling from leaking into the oven, where it can burn. Slits let steam escape so the crust bakes crisp rather than soggy or bursting.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, currant, sugar, cider, cinnamon. 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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