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Dessert

Southern Mince Pie

A pie filled with apples, raisins, suet, molasses, sugar, spices, and brandy, baked in pie paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Southern Mince Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped apples, pitted raisins, and chopped suet.

  2. Add black molasses, brown sugar, grated nutmegs, cinnamon, mace, and brandy.

  3. Cook the mixture slowly for 1 hour, then let it cool.

Bake the pies

  1. Line pie plates with pie paste, fill with the mixture, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  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

Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that balance the sweet molasses and sugar.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a moist, tender texture.
Black molasses
Adds dark sweetness, deep colour and a robust flavour to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the filling become thick and sticky.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour and helps preserve the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling slowly. Slow cooking softens the apples and suet and lets the sugars and spices blend. Cooking too hard can scorch the molasses and sugars on the base of the pan, leaving a bitter taste.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, molasses, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, brandy. 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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