Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mince Pies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Roll out the pastry to ½ inch thick and stamp into rounds to line small tins.
Place a teaspoonful of mincemeat in each tin.
Assemble
Roll out more pastry, thicker than the first, and stamp into rounds for the tops.
Wet the edges of the pastry rounds and cover the pies.
Brush the tops with milk or water and sprinkle with castor sugar.
Bake
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.
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.
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- French puff or rough puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp case and lid that hold the filling.
- Mincemeat
- Provides the sweet, spiced fruit filling that fills each pie.
- Castor sugar
- Sprinkled on top, it sweetens the crust and helps it brown and crisp in the oven.
- Milk or water
- Brushed on the tops, it helps the pastry take on an even golden colour.
The step that matters
Wetting and sealing the edges. If the pastry edges are not wet and pressed firmly together, the lid can separate from the base and the filling may leak during baking. A clean seal keeps the filling enclosed as the pastry puffs.
“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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