Name: Lemon Mince Pies
Ingredients: 1 large lemon; 3 large apples, chopped; 4 ounces suet; ½ pound currants; 4 ounces sugar; juice of 1 lemon; candied fruit; shortcrust 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 juice from the lemon.
Boil the lemon peel until tender, then mash it.
Combine the mashed lemon peel, chopped apples, suet, currants, sugar, lemon juice, and candied fruit in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

Make a shortcrust pastry and roll it out.
Fill pattypans with the mixture and cover with pastry.
Bake until golden brown.

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: Add moisture and bulk, softening into the filling as it cooks.
Suet: Adds richness and fat, keeping the filling moist and tender.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste rounded against the sharp lemon.
Currants: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Shortcrust pastry: Forms the crisp, golden case that encloses the filling.