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Dessert

Mince Pie

A sweet pie made with minced meat, apples, suet, raisins, currants, sugar, spices, cider, vinegar, molasses, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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

  1. Mix the chopped meat, apples, suet, raisins, currants, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Add the cider, vinegar, molasses, and lemon juice, and mix well.

  3. Cook the mixture for 20 minutes before transferring it to a crock.

  4. If desired, add more cider.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean boiled meat
Provides the bulk and savory body of the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and mellow.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, raisin, sugar, clove, cinnamon, cider. 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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