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Common Mince Pies

A spiced filling of boiled beef and chopped apples with raisins, sugar and molasses, left to stand overnight before use in mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Common Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef until very tender, then let it cool.

  2. Chop the cooled beef very fine.

Mix and rest

  1. Chop the apples fine, using three times the quantity of beef.

  2. Mix the chopped beef and apples together.

  3. Add raisins, allspice, coarse sea salt, sugar, cinnamon, and molasses to taste.

  4. Stir the mixture well and let it stand overnight in a cool place.

  5. Optionally, add a little ginger and grape syrup for extra flavor.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body that the mincemeat is built around.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and bulk, balancing the richness of the beef and spices.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavor to the mixture.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand overnight in a cool place. Resting lets the spices, fruit, sugar and meat flavors blend and mellow, and the cool temperature keeps the cooked meat and fruit from spoiling during the rest.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, allspice, sugar, cinnamon, molasses):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, allspice, sugar, cinnamon, molasses. 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.