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Dessert

Mince Pies

A mixture of raisins, candied orange, lemon peel, citron, beef suet, apples, currants, sugar, sherry, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mince Pies

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 ↓

Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the raisins, candied orange, lemon peel, citron, beef suet, and apples.

  2. Mix all chopped ingredients with currants, sugar, sherry, and brandy.

  3. Combine everything well and place in a covered earthenware pot.

Bake and serve

  1. When ready to use, make pastry cases and fill them with the mincemeat.

  2. Bake the filled pastry cases.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Orange + appletop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it sits.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Currants
Contribute sweetness and a tart, fruity bite to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, lemon, beef, apple, sugar, sherry. 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.

More mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

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