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Dessert

Mince Meat for Pies

A sweet and spiced mince meat filling for pies, containing apples, raisins, currants, sugars, spices, and cider or pickle juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Meat for Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the ingredients in the order given.

  2. Cook in a porcelain kettle until the apples and raisins are soft.

  3. Use meat from the vein or lower part of the round with a little fat and no bone, boiled until tender before chopping.

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 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

Chopped meat
Provides the bulk and savoury body of the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness as they soften and plump.
Apples
Break down during cooking to give the filling soft body and moisture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated tang and acidity along with a fruity sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until the apples and raisins are soft. Cooking softens the apple's cell walls and plumps the raisins, so the filling becomes tender and cohesive. Stopping early leaves firm, distinct pieces, while cooking too long without stirring can scorch the sugars on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the currant

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

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

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