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Mince Pie

A spiced meat pie made with beef tongue, beef, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, molasses, brandy, wine, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef tongue and vein of beef for 6 hours.

  2. Remove the skin from the tongue.

  3. Chop the beef and tongue very fine.

Mix the filling

  1. Add the chopped beef, tongue, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, brandy, white wine, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmegs, and mace into a large pan.

  2. Mix everything well with your hands.

  3. Let the mixture stand overnight.

Finish and store

  1. When ready to bake, take a portion into another pan.

  2. Add half as much fine-chopped apples as the meat to the portion. Mix well.

  3. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  4. If not sweet enough, add more sugar.

  5. Add a little more wine.

  6. Store the remaining meat in a jar with a little brandy. Cover it tightly.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Melts during baking to add richness and a moist, tender texture to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavor of the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness and richness of the meat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, brandy, white wine, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, brandy, white wine, cinnamon. 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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