Name: Mince Pies
Ingredients: 4 pounds beef; 1 pound chopped suet; 2 pounds raisins; 2 pounds English currants; 2 tablespoons cinnamon; 1 tablespoon cloves; 1 peck apples; 2 pounds sugar; 3 quarts cider

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the beef and let it cool.
Chop the beef very fine.
In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, suet, raisins, currants, cinnamon, cloves, apples, sugar, and cider.
Mix well and transfer to a stone jar.
Cover the jar.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Quincefits better
Pearfits better
Currantthe original

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