Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Mince Pies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a fierce oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter some tin patty pans well.
Fill and close
Line the pans evenly with the puff pastry.
Fill the pastry with mincemeat.
Moisten the edges of the pastry covers, which should be about ¼ inch thick.
Close the pies carefully and trim off any excess pastry.
Make a small hole in the center of each pie with a fork or knife.
Bake
Bake for 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp shell that holds the mincemeat filling.
- Mincemeat
- Provides the sweet, spiced filling that fills each pie.
- Butter
- Greases the patty pans so the pastry releases cleanly after baking.
The step that matters
Covering with paper if they brown too quickly. Pastry browns quickly in a hot oven because its sugars and fats caramelize and colour faster than the filling heats through. Covering the pies with paper slows surface browning so the pastry can finish cooking without burning.
“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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