Name: Lemon Mince Pies
Ingredients: 1 large lemon; 3 large apples, chopped; 4 ounces suet; ½ pound currants; 4 ounces sugar; candied fruit (as desired); short crust pastry

Why it works: Apple and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,918 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Lemon Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Squeeze the lemon and boil the peel until tender enough to mash.
Mash the boiled lemon peel and mix in the chopped apples, suet, currants, sugar, and lemon juice.
Add candied fruit as desired.

Assemble and bake

Prepare a short crust pastry and fill the patty pans with the mixture.
Bake as usual.

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.

Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + curranttop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Provide moisture and body to the filling, bulking out the mincemeat.
Suet: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a moist, tender texture.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Lemon: Adds bright acidity and aroma, with the boiled peel contributing bitter citrus flavour.