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Dessert

Mince Pie

A pie of boiled meat, apples, suet, raisins, spices, lemon, brandy, wine, molasses, cider, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet and apples together.

  2. Mix all ingredients well.

Rest and adjust

  1. Let the mixture stand overnight.

  2. If too dry or not flavorful enough, add more sugar, salt, brandy, or cider.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it stands.
Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of sugar and molasses.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep, dark flavor to the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the filling's flavor.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand overnight. Resting lets the spices, fruit, sugar, and alcohol meld and soak into the chopped ingredients, deepening flavor. Skipping the rest leaves the filling tasting sharp and unblended.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, cinnamon, clove, lemon, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, cinnamon, clove, lemon, allspice, nutmeg. 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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