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Mince Pie Meat

A sweet meat pie with apples, raisins, sugar, molasses, cider, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the apples, suet, and meat.

  2. Measure 3 bowls of meat, 1 bowl of suet, 4 bowls of apples, 2 bowls of raisins, 2 bowls of sugar, 1 bowl of molasses, and 2 bowls of cider.

  3. Add 2 nutmegs, 2 tablespoons each of cinnamon, cloves, and coarse sea salt.

  4. Save the liquid from boiling the meat and add it to the mixture.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil all ingredients together.

  2. Add ½ pint or more of brandy.

  3. Optionally, add citron and currants.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it savory richness.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich-textured.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative in the finished filling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Applethe original
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Orangefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, 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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