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Mince Pies. No. 1.

A savory mixture of boiled beef, apples, suet, dried fruit, spices, molasses, cider, and brandy, used for making mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies. No. 1.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef until almost dry, allowing the juice to return to the meat.

  2. Set the beef aside to cool, preferably overnight.

  3. Pick out bones, gristle, and stringy bits from the beef before chopping.

Mix and heat

  1. In a large bowl, mix the chopped beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, sweet cider, boiled cider, salt, pepper, mace, allspice, cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves thoroughly.

  2. Warm the mixture on the stove until heated through.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy and Madeira wine.

Store

  1. Transfer to a crock, cover tightly, and store in a cold 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.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the bulk and meaty body of the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps preserve the mixture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, sweetness, and a deep, rich flavor.
Green tart apples
Add acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness and richness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pick out bones, gristle, and stringy bits before chopping. Boiling leaves tough connective tissue and small bones in the meat. Removing them before chopping keeps the filling smooth and prevents hard or stringy pieces in the finished pies.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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