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Dessert

Mince Pies

A savory pie filled with beef, salt pork, apples, raisins, and spices, sweetened with sugar and molasses.

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 clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the beef and salt pork.

  2. Peel and core the apples, then chop them.

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, salt pork, apples, sugar, raisins, citron, cassia, nutmeg, cloves, molasses, and boiled cider or vinegar. Mix thoroughly 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  5. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and rich, savory bulk of the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness and spices.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown during baking.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a robust flavor.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

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