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Dessert

Mince Pies, Plain

A sweet meat pie made with beef, pork, sugar, molasses, fruit, and spices, served in jars with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 Pies, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped beef, fat salt pork, sugar, grated nutmeg, molasses, lemon rind and juice, coarse sea salt, and cider.

  2. Boil the mixture until well combined.

  3. Add the cinnamon, chopped fruit, cloves, and finely chopped suet, then mix thoroughly.

  4. Pack the mixture into jars and pour a little brandy on top.

Finish and use

  1. When ready to use, add the chopped apples and stoned raisins to taste.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and richness that forms the traditional filling's bulk.
Suet
Adds fat that stays solid and gives the filling a rich, moist texture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and deepens the color and flavor of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by binding water.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness, and fresh fruit texture to the filling.
Lemons
Add acidity and aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich spices and sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling the meat and liquid mixture. Boiling until the mixture is well combined ensures the meat is fully cooked and the ingredients blend evenly. Insufficient cooking leaves the filling less safe to store and uneven in texture.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, sugar, nutmeg, molasses, cider, 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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