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Dessert

Mince Pie

A savory pie made with beef, suet, fruit, spices, and wine, baked in stone jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and fruit

  1. Boil the beef until well done, then let it cool and chop it fine.

  2. Chop the suet and apples, then add them to the beef.

Combine and store

  1. Mix the brown sugar and spices, then add the wine, brandy, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  2. Combine the raisins, currants, citron, lemon rind, and orange rind.

  3. Gradually mix all three sets of ingredients, adding the coarse sea salt to the liquid part.

  4. Pack the mixture into stone jars, cover closely, and store in a dry, cool place.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tenderloin
Provides the bulk of the meat, which is cooked through and chopped fine for texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it is stored.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the mixture and adds aroma.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the cooked beef cool before chopping and mixing. Adding warm meat to the fats and fruit can melt the suet and make the filling greasy and uneven. Cooling firms the meat so it chops cleanly and blends evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, raisin, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, raisin, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. 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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