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Mince Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the suet into small pieces and render it in a kettle until melted.

  2. Strain the melted suet into the kettle where you will prepare the mince meat.

  3. Keep the kettle warm and add the chopped beef and some of the water it was boiled in.

  4. Boil down the mixture until it reduces to a small quantity, then stir thoroughly.

  5. Add 2 quarts of sweet cider, salt, and sugar to taste, along with equal parts of mace, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  6. Stir in 4 pounds of stoned raisins, 4 pounds of washed currants, and 1 pound of chopped citron.

  7. If desired, mix in equal parts of chopped meat and chopped apples for richer pies.

  8. Store the mince meat in a stone crock in a cool, dry place, adding apples when making the pies.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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