Name: Another Way to Make Mince Pies
Ingredients: 2 pounds fresh suet, finely minced; 2 pounds well-cleaned currants; 2 pounds good apples, minced; 1 pound loaf sugar, pounded; Peel of 2 lemons, grated; Juice of 2 lemons; Mace, cinnamon, and cloves, pounded and finely sifted

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Mince Pies

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh suet, finely minced
2 pounds well-cleaned currants
2 pounds good apples, minced
1 pound loaf sugar, pounded
Peel of 2 lemons, grated
Juice of 2 lemons
Mace, cinnamon, and cloves, pounded and finely sifted

Directions

Finely mince the fresh suet and combine it with the currants and minced apples in a large bowl.
Add the pounded loaf sugar, grated lemon peel, and lemon juice to the mixture.
Incorporate the pounded mace, cinnamon, and cloves, mixing thoroughly.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, mace, cinnamon, clove):

Orangebetter flavor fit
Quincebetter flavor fit
Figbetter flavor fit
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, mace, cinnamon, clove. 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).