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Dessert

Mince Pies

A savory‑sweet mixture of beef, apples, suet, raisins, sugar, molasses, spices, and cider, boiled and cooled for use in pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the shank of beef for six hours, then let it cool.

  2. Remove bones, fat, and gristle from the cooled beef and chop it finely.

Mix and rest

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat, apples, suet, raisins, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mace, nutmeg, and salt. Mix thoroughly with your hands.

  2. Pour in the cider and let the mixture sit overnight.

Scald and store

  1. The next morning, scald the mixture in a porcelain kettle for one hour.

  2. Transfer to stone pots, cover tightly, and store in a 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Provides meaty body and savory richness once boiled and finely chopped.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.

The step that matters

Scalding the mixture for one hour. Heating the filling thoroughly helps reduce microbial growth, which matters because the mixture holds meat, fat and fruit and is kept for storage. Keep the kettle at a gentle simmer so the mixture does not scorch on the bottom.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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