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Mince Pie

A savory pie made from boiled beef tongue, vein, suet, dried fruit, spices, and sweetened with sugar, molasses, and wine.

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. Skin the tongue and chop the beef and tongue very fine.

Make the mince

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

  2. Mix well with your hands and let it stand overnight.

Add apples and store

  1. When ready to bake, take a portion into another pan and add fine-chopped apples. Mix well and let it stand for 1 hour.

  2. If not sweet enough, add more sugar and a little more wine.

  3. Store the remaining meat in a jar with a little brandy, covering 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 tongue
Provides rich, tender meat that forms the body of the mince.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mince moist and gives it a rich texture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deep caramel-like flavor.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mince.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Letting the mixed meat stand overnight. Resting lets the spices, sugar, and liquids soak into the chopped meat and fruit, blending the flavors and softening the texture before baking.

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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