Skip to main content
Main

Boston Mince Pie

A savory pie made with boiled beef, apples, currants, raisins, spices, cider, brandy, cherry wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Boston Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the cider, currants, raisins, spices, vinegar, and melted butter together.

  2. Pour the mixture over the chopped beef and apples.

  3. Allow to cool, then add the brandy, cherry wine, lemon juice, and brown sugar.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  2. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Apple + cherrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together295 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body that gives the filling its substance.
Russet apples
Add moisture and tartness, and soften into the filling as it sits.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative that keeps the mixture stable.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the spices and gives a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Allow to cool before adding the alcohol and lemon juice. Alcohol evaporates quickly when hot, so adding brandy and cherry wine to a boiling mixture wastes aroma. Cooling first keeps the flavours intact, and lemon juice added warm can thin and separate the butter.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, currant, raisin, cider, brandy, cherry):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, currant, raisin, cider, brandy, cherry. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes