Name: Mince Pie
Ingredients: mince meat; pie paste or crust; cider or jelly or liquid from sweet pickle; butter

Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

mince meat
pie paste or crust
cider or jelly or liquid from sweet pickle
butter

Directions

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

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a pie tin with pie paste or crust.
If the mince meat is fresh, fill the pie tin level full.
If the mince meat is older, heat the required amount in a saucepan.
Moisten the mince meat with cider, jelly, or liquid from sweet pickle, and add a few bits of butter.
Once heated and seasoned, fill the pie crust with the mince meat.
Add the upper crust and place in the hot oven immediately.
Reduce the heat as soon as the crust begins to brown and bake for 30 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.

Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cider + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Meat + cidertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).