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Dessert

Apple Minced Pies

A baked apple pie with a minced apple filling, eggs, cream, sugar, raisins, currants, citron, wine or spice, and optional meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Minced Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped apples, beaten eggs, cream, sugar, raisins, currants, citron, and wine or spice.

  3. If desired, add chopped meat to the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Bake the under crust for a few minutes before adding the filling.

  2. Pour the filling into the pre-baked crust and cover with a thin layer of pastry.

  3. Bake until the top is golden and the filling is set.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main bulk and fruity flavor of the filling.
Eggs
Set the filling into a sliceable custard as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the set custard texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Currants
Add small bursts of tart sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Bake the under crust before adding the filling. A wet, custard-like filling can soak an unbaked crust and leave it soggy. Pre-baking sets the base so it stays crisp under the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, cream, sugar, raisin, wine, meat):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, cream, sugar, raisin, wine, meat. 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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