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Dessert

Mince-pie

A pie made with apples, meat, currants, raisins, molasses, sugar, spices, cider, topped with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mince-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a large kettle, combine the chopped apples and meat in a 2:1 ratio.

  2. Add the currants, raisins, molasses, sugar, and spices to taste.

  3. Pour in enough cider to moisten the mixture.

  4. Cook slowly on the stove until thoroughly cooked.

Store and bake

  1. Transfer to a stone jar and store in a cool place.

  2. When ready to make pies, fill the pie plate as needed and dot with butter.

  3. Bake without a top crust; prepare a puff pastry separately and place it on top after baking.

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 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

Apples
Provide bulk and tart moisture that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit.
Meat
Adds savory richness and body to the filling.
Currants
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until thoroughly cooked. Slow cooking lets the meat and apples cook through evenly without scorching the sugars and molasses on the bottom of the kettle, and the mixture needs to be fully cooked before it is stored.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, meat, raisin, molasses, sugar, cider, butter):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, meat, raisin, molasses, sugar, cider, butter. 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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