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Dessert

New England Mince Pies

A pie made by stewing condensed mince meat with water and sweetening with sugar, fruit syrup, vinegar, or preserves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

New England Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew Dougherty's New England Condensed Mince Meat with ½ cup water for twenty minutes.

  2. Add sugar, fruit syrup, vinegar, or any preserves to taste, using less water if adding these ingredients.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Syrup + vinegartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Meat + vinegartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,428 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dougherty's new england condensed mince meat
Forms the fruity, spiced body of the filling, providing most of its flavour and texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness and spice of the mincemeat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, sweet fruit flavours.

“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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