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Mince Pies

A pastry filled with a mixture of boiled beef heart or fresh tongue, suet, apples, raisins, currants, spices, and citrus.

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.

  2. After removing the skin and fat, weigh 2 pounds and chop finely when cold.

  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.

  6. Stone and chop the raisins.

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

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

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

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

Make the pastry

  1. Make the pastry using ½ pound of butter and ¾ pound of sifted flour, similar to puff pastry but less rich.

Fill and bake

  1. Roll out a sheet of pastry to line a soup plate.

  2. Fill it with the mince mixture.

  3. Lay slips of citron on top.

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

  5. Place it on top.

  6. Crimp the edges with a knife.

  7. Prick holes in the lid.

  8. 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 meaty body of the filling, which is chopped and bound with fat.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moistness to the filling as it blends with the meat.
Pippin apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat to the pastry, making it tender and flaky.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry once baked.

The step that matters

Do not add the citron until filling the pies. Citron added early can release moisture and sugar into the mixture and soften, so keeping it for the filling step preserves its texture and shape in the baked pies.

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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