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Mince Pies

A pastry case filled with minced meat, topped with a butter‑flour dough, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mince Pies

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

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 the puff or tart pastry thinly to line patty pans.

  3. Fill the pans with mince meat, mounding it slightly in the center and leaving ½ inch from the edge.

Make the pastry

  1. In a bowl, mix 1 pound of butter with 1 pound of flour to make a light pastry.

  2. Add 1 egg, juice of 1 lemon, and enough water to form a dough.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out more pastry for the tops and place over the filled pans.

  2. Trim the edges with a knife and make a small hole in the center.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 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

Butter
Rubbed into flour, it adds richness and a tender, flaky texture to the pastry.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry dough once combined with butter and liquid.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness, helping it hold together when rolled.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the pastry flavor and balances the rich butter.

The step that matters

Mixing the pastry dough. Overworking cold butter and flour develops gluten and makes the pastry tough, while too much water makes it sticky. Mix just until a dough forms so the pastry stays tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, flour, egg. 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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