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Mince Pies

A savory pie with a filling of boiled beef heart or fresh tongue, suet, apples, raisins, currants, spices, and citrus, topped with citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Parboil the beef heart or fresh tongue, weighing 2 pounds when cold.

  2. Remove the skin and fat and chop the meat very fine.

  3. Chop the suet as fine as possible, weighing 2 pounds.

  4. Mix the chopped meat and suet together, adding the salt.

  5. Pare, core, and chop the apples, then stone and chop the raisins.

  6. Add the prepared currants to the meat and suet mixture.

  7. Incorporate the sugar, spices, and the grated peel and juice of the oranges.

  8. Wet the mixture with the rose water and liquor, mixing well.

  9. Do not add the citron until filling the pies.

Make and fill the pies

  1. For the pastry, use ½ pound of butter and ¾ pound of sifted flour, making it like puff pastry.

  2. Lay a sheet of pastry over a soup plate.

  3. Fill it with the mince mixture.

  4. Lay the citron slips on top of the filling.

  5. Roll out another sheet of pastry for the lid.

  6. Place it on top.

  7. Crimp the edges with a knife.

  8. Prick holes in the lid.

Bake

  1. Bake the pies for 30 minutes in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together372 recipes

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

  3. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef heart or tongue
Provides the bulk of the meat that forms the body of the filling.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.
Pippin apples
Contribute moisture and a tart flavour that balances the sweetness.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste rounded and mellow.
Butter
Creates flaky layers and tenderness in the puff-style pastry.
Flour
Gives the pastry its structure so it holds the filling while baking.

The step that matters

Adding the citron at the filling stage. Citron is added only when filling the pies so its peel keeps its texture and flavour rather than softening and dissolving into the wet mixture during standing.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, currant, sugar, white wine, brandy, rose):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, currant, sugar, white wine, brandy, rose. 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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