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Dessert

Mince Pie

A savory pie filling made from suet, minced meat, dried fruit, spices, cider, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine suet, mince meat, raisins, currants, citron, apples, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, syrup, cider, cinnamon, pepper, salt, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large pot. Stir the mixture well.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Transfer the boiling mixture to a jar and let it cool.

Finish for pies

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of brandy to each pie filling when ready to make pies.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  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

Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Mince meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it a savoury, meaty base.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sugar and spices.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a boil. Boiling the filling before jarring heats it through so it is safer to store and helps the spices and fruit blend. Letting it cool fully before use keeps the fats from melting into the pie filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, apple, clove, ginger, nutmeg, syrup):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, apple, clove, ginger, nutmeg, syrup. 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.

More mince pie recipes

Mock 45Filling 14Lemon 8Fruit 5Patties 5Christmas 4 See all 109 →

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