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Dessert

Mince Pie

A sweet pie filled with suet, raisins, candied peel, apples, spices, lemon juice, and cider, topped with a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the suet, raisins, candied lemon and orange peel, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cider. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the pie crusts and line a pie dish with one crust.

  2. Fill the crust with the mince mixture and cover with the second crust. Seal the edges and cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

  3. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the crust is 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.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

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

  5. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the dried fruit.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aromatic flavour to the filling.
Nutmeg
Adds warm aromatic flavour that complements the spices and fruit.
Pie crusts
Form the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cutting steam slits in the top crust. Vents let steam from the moist, fruity filling escape, so the crust does not lift or steam-soften and the pie bakes evenly.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, orange, apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider):

  1. Cranberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, orange, apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider. 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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