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Mince Pies

A preserved meat pie made with beef heart, tongue, apples, currants, raisins, suet, molasses, cider, sugar, spices, brandy, and optional citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef heart and tongue until tender.

  2. Chop the meat finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, apples, currants, raisins, and suet.

  2. Add molasses, cider, sugar, spices, brandy, and citron to taste. Mix well and transfer to a jar.

  3. Pour additional molasses over the mixture to preserve it.

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.

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.

  1. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef heart
Provides the meaty base of the filling, giving body and savoury richness.
Beef tongue
Adds meaty bulk and richness to the filling once boiled and chopped.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it sits.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness, and body to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the meat and spices.

The step that matters

Pour additional molasses over the mixture to preserve it.. Molasses is a thick sugar syrup that limits the water available to spoilage microbes, so the top layer must cover the filling fully to help keep it stable in the jar.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, apple, raisin, molasses, cider, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, apple, raisin, molasses, cider, sugar. 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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