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Dessert

Mince Pie Tartlets with Pork

A tartlet filled with pork mince and a sweet fruit mixture, baked in shortcrust pastry.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie Tartlets with Pork

36 tartlets
Oven150 °C (300 °F) for the cases; 120 °C (250 °F) for the filled tartlets
Timehalf an hour

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fruit base

  1. Preheat oven to 150 °C (300 °F).

  2. Bring the sugar, wine, cider, orange, and lemon juice to a simmer.

  3. Add mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  4. Split the vanilla pod, scrape the seeds into the pot, and discard the pod.

  5. Stir in sliced apples and fruit mix.

Prepare the tartlet cases

  1. Grease the muffin tins.

  2. Line the tins with pastry dough to make tartlet cases.

  3. Trim the pastry to fit the tins.

  4. Place the cases into the oven and bake until lightly golden.

  5. Remove the cases from the oven and let them cool.

Make the pork filling

  1. Melt butter in a pan.

  2. Add minced pork and sauté until browned.

  3. Remove the cinnamon stick from the fruit mixture.

  4. Mix the pork into the fruit mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Using a tablespoon, fill the tartlet cases with the filling.

  2. If desired, trim with excess pastry.

  3. Bake each tray at 120 °C (250 °F) for half an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

617Calories
30 gProtein
27 gFat
61 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 14 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Cidernot in our table0
Macenot in our table0
Fruitnot in our table0
Pastrynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 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 + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 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

Lean pork mince
Provides the savoury meat body of the filling and browns richly when sautéed.
White granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and helps build the syrupy base for the fruit.
Cored and sliced apples
Adds moisture, tartness and soft body to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and browns the pork during sautéing.
Shortcrust pastry dough
Forms the crisp, sturdy case that holds the filling.
Cider
Adds acidity and a fruity aroma to the fruit base.

The step that matters

Bake the empty cases until lightly golden, then cool them. A pre-baked shell sets its pastry before the wet fruit filling goes in, so the base stays crisp rather than soaking up liquid and turning soggy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, wine, cider, orange, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, wine, cider, orange, lemon, nutmeg, 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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