Skip to main content
Dessert

Mince Pie

A sweet pie filling of meat, apples, raisins, spices, molasses, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.

  2. Heat the mixture until scalding hot.

  3. Transfer the hot mixture into a jar for storage.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the savory base of the filling, giving it body and richness.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, and break down to give the filling a soft, spreadable texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Heating until scalding hot. Bringing the mixture to scalding heat helps reduce microbes before it goes into a jar, which matters because the filling is meant for storage. Heating too little leaves the mixture at greater risk of spoilage, while the sugar and fruit help keep it stable once cooled.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, sugar, cider, clove, cinnamon, allspice. 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.

More mince pie recipes

Mock 45Filling 14Lemon 8Fruit 5Patties 5Christmas 4 See all 109 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipes