Name: Patties Resembling Mince Pies
Ingredients: cold veal kidney and fat, chopped; 1 apple, chopped; 1 orange, candied peel, chopped; 1 lemon, candied peel, chopped; fresh currants; ¼ cup wine; 2-3 cloves, crushed; 1 tablespoon brandy; 1 tablespoon sugar

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Patties Resembling Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Chop the kidney and fat of cold veal, apple, orange peel, lemon peel, and fresh currants.
Mix in the wine, crushed cloves, brandy, and sugar.

Bake

Fill pastry shells with the mixture.
Bake 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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,987 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal kidney and fat: Adds richness and savoury body to the traditional meat-based filling.
Apple: Adds moisture and mild sweetness that balances the richer meat and spices.
Candied orange and lemon peel: Adds concentrated citrus sweetness and aroma to the filling.
Fresh currants: Add tartness and fruity juiciness to the filling.
Brandy: Adds warm aroma and helps carry the spice flavours through the filling.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, apple, orange, lemon, wine, clove, brandy):

Blackberrybetter flavor fit
Grapebetter flavor fit
Figbetter flavor fit
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, apple, orange, lemon, wine, clove, brandy. 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).

“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.