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Mince Pies

A fruit and beef filling baked in pastry, seasoned with spices and citrus, soaked for weeks before baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Rub and pick the currants clean.

  2. In a large bowl, mix currants, suet, minced beef, apples, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, sugar, spices, and the rinds of lemons and oranges until well combined.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the brandy, sherry, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  4. Pour half of the liquid mixture over the fruit mixture and press down tightly with your hand.

  5. Add the remaining liquid on top and let it soak in gradually.

Age the mixture

  1. Cover the mixture and let it sit for six weeks before using.

Bake and serve

  1. Line pie pans with puff pastry, fill with the mixture, and cover with more pastry.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide chewy body and concentrated sweetness as the main dried fruit in the filling.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and carries flavor.
Lean sirloin beef
Adds savory depth and body to the filling, balancing the sweet fruit.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that brightens the rich, sweet filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it during long aging.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture during its long soak.

The step that matters

Pressing and soaking the liquid in. Pressing the fruit down firmly and adding the liquid in two portions lets the fruit absorb the spirits evenly. Even absorption helps the mixture keep well through the six-week rest.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, beef, apple, lemon, orange, sugar, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, beef, apple, lemon, orange, sugar, 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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