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Dessert

Mince, or Eccles Cake

A pastry made with puff pastry, Banbury meat, and dusted with loaf sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mince, or Eccles Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Roll out a sheet of puff pastry to about ⅛ inch thick, large enough to cover a tin about 12 inches long and 6‑9 inches wide.

  3. Spread a layer of Banbury meat about ½ inch thick on the pastry.

  4. Roll out another sheet of pastry to the same thickness and cover the Banbury meat.

  5. Trim the edges and cut the top into small squares.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until golden brown, then dust the top with loaf sugar.

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. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff paste
Puff pastry forms flaky, layered pastry that rises and browns in the oven.
Banbury meat
Sweet spiced currant filling that sits inside the pastry and adds moisture and sweetness.

“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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