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Dessert

Mincemeat Pies

A fruit and nut filling baked in pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

Mincemeat Pies

six good-sized 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 the filling

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. This mixture is enough for six good-sized pies.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the filling between two pie crusts.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

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. Orange + lemontop 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. Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

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

  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

Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy body and concentrated sweetness that thickens the filling as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling and crust brown during baking.
Apples
Contribute moisture and soft texture that bind the filling together.
Grape juice
Adds liquid, sweetness and fruity acidity to the filling.
Ground roasted peanuts
Add body and a toasty, nutty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Browning comes from caramelisation of sugars and Maillard reactions in the crust and juices. Pies removed early stay pale and under-developed in flavour.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, raisin, sugar, orange, lemon, grape, 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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