Name: Mince Pie
Ingredients: 3 cups chopped cooked meat; 6 cups chopped apples; boiled cider (to moisten); molasses or dark sugar (to sweeten); spices (cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and a little black pepper); currants; raisins

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Combine the chopped cooked meat and chopped apples in a large bowl.
Moisten the mixture with boiled cider and sweeten with molasses or dark sugar.
Add spices to taste, including cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and a little black pepper.

Fill and bake

Stir in currants and raisins just before baking.
Fill the pie crust and bake 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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat: Forms the savory base and bulk of the filling.
Apples: Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness and richness.
Boiled cider: Moistens the filling and adds concentrated apple flavor.
Molasses or dark sugar: Adds sweetness and deep, rich flavor and color.
Spices: Provide the warm aroma that defines the mince pie flavor.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cider, molasses, clove, cinnamon, allspice, pepper):

Figfits about as well
Orangefits about as well
Applethe original
Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cider, molasses, clove, cinnamon, allspice, pepper. 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.