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Mince Pies

A savory pie with minced beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, and spices, baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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, then separate the meat from the bones and gristle, and chop it finely.

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

  3. Moisten the mixture with sweet cider or a mix of vinegar and water.

  4. Sweeten the mixture with sugar and molasses to your taste.

  5. Add salt, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and mace according to your preference.

  6. Stir in the raisins and currants.

Assemble and bake

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

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

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 savoury meaty body of the filling after it is boiled and finely chopped.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Tart apples
Add moisture and acidity that balance the sweetness of sugar and molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness along with a deep, slightly bitter flavour.
Sweet cider
Moistens the mixture and adds fruity flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cutting a small hole in the upper crust. The vent lets steam escape while the pie bakes. Without it, pressure builds under the crust and can split it or make the filling soggy.

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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