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Dessert

Apple Mince Pie

A fruit pie made with finely chopped apples, raisins, currants, spices, and cream, topped with brown sugar and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Apple Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped apples, beaten eggs, cream, spices, sugar, raisins, and currants.

  3. Line a pie plate with a plain crust.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the crust with the apple mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with brown sugar and nutmeg, and add a spoonful of water or molasses and allspice if preferred.

  3. Cover with a thick crust.

  4. Bake gently for a long time until the apples are tender.

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Apples
Provide the bulk and tender body of the filling as they soften during gentle baking.
Eggs
Set the filling into a custard-like texture as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the filling and giving it a smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface of the pie.

The step that matters

Bake gently for a long time until the apples are tender. Low, slow heat lets the apples soften fully and lets the egg and cream mixture set evenly. Baking too hot can curdle the eggs and leave the apples firm.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, egg, cream, sugar, raisin, nutmeg, molasses):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, cream, sugar, raisin, nutmeg, molasses. 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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