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Dessert

Mince Pie

A sweet meat pie made with beef, currants, suet, apples, spices, and sweetened with sugar and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook and mince the beef finely.

  2. Chop the suet finely.

  3. Cook the quinces in the cider until soft.

  4. Chop the citron, lemon, and orange peel.

  5. Mix all ingredients.

  6. Cook slowly until the apples are soft.

  7. Add the brandy and wine last.

  8. Pack the mixture in jars.

  9. Cover tightly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out half of the flaky pastry to ¼ inch thick.

  2. Cover a pie pan.

  3. Fill the pie with the mince mixture, about ½ inch thick.

  4. Roll out the other half of the pastry to ⅛ inch thick.

  5. Fold over.

  6. Cut 2-3 slits.

  7. Cover the pie.

  8. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Currant + appletop 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

Beef
Provides the meaty body and richness of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Supply bulk, moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the apples are soft. Gentle heat lets the apples soften evenly and release moisture without scorching the sugar and molasses, which would burn on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, currant, apple, sugar, molasses, raisin, quince):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, currant, apple, sugar, molasses, raisin, quince. 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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