Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Christmas Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cover a pie dish with puff pastry and create a thick edge around it.
Roll out the remaining pastry to a thickness that is not too thin.
Fill the dish with mince meat, heaping it slightly in the center.
Assemble and bake
Use a small pastry wheel cutter to score the pastry in stripes across the center.
Lift the pastry over the dish, trim the edges, and notch them with the back of a knife.
Glaze the top with beaten egg and sprinkle sugar over it.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, golden crust that encloses the filling.
- Mince meat
- Provides the rich, sweet-spiced filling that fills the pie.
- Beaten egg
- Glazes the top, helping the pastry brown and turn glossy.
- Sugar
- Sprinkled on top for sweetness and a crisp, lightly caramelised surface.
The step that matters
Lift the pastry over the dish, trim the edges, and notch them with the back of a knife. Sealing the lid to the thick edge keeps the filling from leaking and steam escaping unevenly. Notching the seal helps it close firmly so it bakes into one cohesive crust.
“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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