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Dessert

Mince-pies

A pastry filled with a mixture of suet, dried fruit, spices, and alcohol, baked until pale brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince-pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Mince the beef suet.

  2. Stone and chop the raisins.

  3. Chop the sultanas.

  4. Clean the currants.

  5. Peel and chop the apples.

  6. Chop the figs.

  7. Cut the candied peel into small pieces.

  8. Blanch and pound the almonds.

  9. Grate the lemon rind.

  10. Squeeze the juice free from seeds.

  11. Grate the nutmeg.

Make the filling

  1. Mix all the ingredients well together.

  2. Put the mixture into a jar.

  3. Cover the jar.

  4. Keep the jar for at least one month before using.

Bake and serve

  1. Roll out pastry and cut into rounds.

  2. Wet the edges of one pastry round.

  3. Place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of the pastry round.

  4. Cover with another pastry round.

  5. Make a hole in the top with a skewer.

  6. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until pale brown.

  7. Sift powdered sugar over the pies while hot.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling tender and juicy during baking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor to the filling.
Sultanas
Provide sweetness and chewy texture within the fruit filling.
Raisins
Provide concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart, fresh note that balances the sweetness.
Almonds
Add body, nutty flavor and a rich texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Keep the jar for at least one month before using.. Resting lets the spices, rum and brandy blend into the fruit and sugar, and the fruit softens and absorbs the liquor, deepening the flavor.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, raisin):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, raisin. 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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