Name: Domestic Mince Pie Meat
Ingredients: 2 pounds chopped meat; 2 pounds suet, chopped fine; 2 pounds currants, picked, washed, and dried; 4 pounds tart apples, peeled and chopped; juice of 2 lemons; peel of 1 lemon, chopped; 1 pint sweet wine; 1 large nutmeg, grated or 1 teaspoon ground mace; 3.5 pounds sugar; ¼ ounce ground cloves or allspice; ¼ ounce ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,207 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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 (meat, apple, lemon, wine, nutmeg, sugar, clove):

Orangefits better
Figfits better
Quincefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, lemon, wine, nutmeg, sugar, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Domestic Mince Pie Meat