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Mince Meat for Pies

A spiced meat and fruit filling for pies made with beef, suet, apples, raisins, spices, sugar, cider, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mince Meat for Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef until done.

  2. Chop the boiled beef very finely.

Mix the filling

  1. Add the minced suet, chopped apples, citron, sultana raisins, whole raisins, grated nutmeg, currants, lemon juice, and candied lemon peel to the beef.

  2. Mix in the sugar, syrup, ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and salt.

  3. Add enough cider to wet the mixture.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook until the apples are tender.

  2. Stir in the brandy if desired.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  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

Lean beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body that give the filling its traditional texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Sour apples
Supply acidity and moisture, and soften into the body of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Dried currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Cider
Moistens the mixture and adds fruity acidity as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook until the apples are tender. Apples need enough heat and time to soften fully; undercooked apples stay firm and grainy, while the sugar and liquid thicken and concentrate the filling as it cooks.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, syrup):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, syrup. 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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