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Mince Pies

A savory-sweet mixture of beef, pork, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, spices, and sugar, baked after adding cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Mince Pies

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cook the beef and fat pork together until tender, then chop finely.

  2. Measure the chopped meat and add twice as much chopped apples.

Mix and store

  1. Mix in the chopped suet, raisins, dried currants, citron, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pack the mixture into jars and cover with suet.

Finish and bake

  1. When ready to use, add sweetened cider and bake.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  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

Beef
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender through long cooking and then breaks down finely.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, since its fat stays solid and melts into the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, balancing the heavy sweetness of the sugar and dried fruit.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, pork, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar. 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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