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Dessert

Mince Pie

A savory pie with minced meat, raisins, cider, and spices, topped with butter.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Combine the chopped meat, raisins, boiled cider, and sweet cider until well mixed.

  2. Add jelly or juice from canned fruit for moisture.

  3. Stir in sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to taste.

  4. Heat the mixture until warmed through.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie plate with crust.

  2. Fill with the mince mixture.

  3. Sprinkle with small bits of butter.

  4. Cover with the upper crust.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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. 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

Chopped meat
Forms the savory base of the filling and gives it body.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste rounded.
Jelly or canned fruit juice
Adds moisture and fruity sweetness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top crust brown.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Applefits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, butter. 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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