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Mince Pie

A savory pie made with beef, tongue, suet, dried fruit, spices, molasses, cider, and apple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef and tongue for four hours.

  2. Skin the tongue and chop it and the beef finely.

Make the filling

  1. Add the chopped suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, boiled cider (or wine and brandy), salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and mace.

  2. Mix well and let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. When making the pies, add the chopped apple and enough water to achieve a nice consistency.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef and tongue
Provide the meaty body of the filling, becoming tender after long boiling and fine chopping.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, coating the filling so it stays juicy when baked.
Raisins and currants
Provide sweetness and chewy texture, plumping as the mixture stands.
Brown sugar and molasses
Add sweetness, depth and a dark color to the filling.
Boiled cider
Adds acidity and fruity flavor that balances the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand overnight. Resting lets the spices, sugars and liquids blend and the dried fruit absorb moisture, so the filling tastes rounded rather than harsh.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider, cinnamon, allspice. 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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