Skip to main content
Dessert

Common Mince-pie

A savory pie filled with minced meat, suet, raisins, currants, sugar, spices, lemon, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Common Mince-pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine minced meat, suet, raisins, currants, sugar, spices, lemon zest, lemon juice, and brandy. Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the pie crust with the mixture and cover with another layer of crust.

  2. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.

  3. Bake for 1 hour or until the crust is golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Minced meat
Provides savoury body and richness that forms the bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling taste balanced and rounded.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth, and helps carry the spice flavours through the filling.

The step that matters

Cut slits in the top crust. Vents let steam escape during baking, so the filling does not build pressure that can lift or split the top crust.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, lemon. 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.

More mince pie recipes

Mock 45Filling 14Lemon 8Fruit 5Patties 5Christmas 4 See all 109 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes