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Mince Pies

A savory pie filling of ground beef, suet, currants, raisins, citron, apples, jam, cider, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, chopped suet, currants, raisins, chopped citron, and sugar.

  2. Add the chopped apples, raspberry jam, and boiled cider to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the nutmeg, cloves, mace, lemon rind, orange rind, and lemon juice until well combined.

Bake

  1. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake until golden brown.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Apple + raspberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Currant + raspberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together366 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides savoury body and a meaty richness to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Apple
Adds moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavour, acidity and sweetness.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, currant, raisin, sugar, apple, cider, nutmeg. 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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