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Dessert

Lemon Mince-Pie

A pie filled with lemon, apples, suet, currants, and sugar, baked in short crust pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Lemon Mince-Pie

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 the filling

  1. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and set aside the lemon juice.

  2. Boil the lemon until tender, then mash it.

  3. In a bowl, combine the mashed lemon, chopped apples, suet, currants, sugar, and lemon juice.

  4. Add candied fruits if desired.

Assemble and bake

  1. Make a short crust pastry and line patty-pans with it.

  2. Fill the pastry with the mixture.

  3. Top with more pastry if desired.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Apples
Provide bulk and tartness, and soften into the filling as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown as it bakes.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma; the boiled lemon contributes softened pulp and bright flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the lemon until tender. The whole lemon must soften fully before mashing; if it stays firm, its pieces remain tough and bitter in the filling. Boiling breaks down the cell walls so the pulp blends evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, currant, sugar, brandy):

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, currant, sugar, brandy. 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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