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Mince Pies

A fruit and suet mixture, sometimes with beef, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Mince Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit and suet

  1. Shred the suet finely.

  2. Stone and chop the raisins.

  3. Pick and wash the currants, then dry them by the fire.

  4. Peel, core, and chop the apples very fine.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Mix the suet, raisins, currants, apples, sugar, candied fruits, mace, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, lemon rind, and lemon juice in a large bowl.

  2. If using, add the chopped beef and mix well.

  3. Wet the mixture with brandy or white wine and press it into a stone jar or pan.

  4. Cover and let it sit for up to 12 months.

Make and bake the pies

  1. To make the pies, line patty pans with a thin crust, fill with the mixture, and cover with another crust about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Sprinkle pounded sugar over the pies before serving.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 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

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during baking.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit flavour and a soft, moist chew to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness of the sugar and dried fruit.
Brandy or white wine
Moistens the mixture and adds aroma while helping it keep during long storage.
Pounded lump sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds a crisp sugary finish on the baked pies.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture sit for up to 12 months. The mixture needs to be well moistened with spirit or wine and sealed so it does not spoil. Flavours blend and mellow over long storage, but the jar must be covered to keep out air and contamination.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, apple, sugar, lemon, orange, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, apple, sugar, lemon, orange, cinnamon. 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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