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Mince Pies

A savory pie filled with minced beef, suet, apples, and spices.

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

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince 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. Boil the beef until tender.

  2. Separate the meat from the bones and gristle, then chop the meat finely.

  3. In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, suet, and apples.

  4. Moisten the mixture with sweet cider (or vinegar and water) and sweeten with sugar and molasses to taste.

  5. Add salt, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and mace, along with raisins and currants.

Bake

  1. Prepare shallow pie plates with a thick upper crust, cutting a small hole in the top, and fill with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body of the filling once boiled and chopped.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Tart apples
Contribute moisture and acidity that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavour to the filling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Applethe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cider, sugar, molasses, pepper, ginger, 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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