Skip to main content
Main

Mince Pies

A pastry dish filled with minced meat, optionally sweetened with sifted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Mince Pies

Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease patty pans with butter and line them with the puff paste.

Fill and cover

  1. Fill the lined patty pans with mince meat.

  2. Moisten the edges of the pastry covers and place them on top.

  3. Trim off any excess paste and make a small hole in the center of each pie.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.

  2. Ice the pies with cold water and sifted sugar if desired.

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. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff paste
Forms the flaky, crisp case and lid that hold the filling.
Mince meat
Provides the rich, spiced filling that gives each pie its flavor and moisture.
Butter
Greases the patty pans so the pastry releases cleanly and browns richly.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and a delicate finish on the baked pies.

The step that matters

Covering the pies while baking. Puff pastry browns quickly at high oven heat, so the top can scorch before the pastry is fully cooked. Covering with paper slows browning while the layers finish rising and setting.

“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 pies recipes

Lemon 10Mock 4Royal 4 See all 116 →

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes