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Mrs. D.'s Mince Pies

A savory pie filled with beef, apples, raisins, currants, suet, spices, brandy, wine, sugar, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mrs. D.'s Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, salt, cloves, mace, cinnamon, allspice, brandy, wine, sugar, and molasses, then mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined.

  2. Fill pie crusts with the mixture and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

Chopped beef
Provides the meaty body and savoury bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown and thicken slightly as it bakes.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour depth to the filling.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, clove, mace, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Orangebetter flavor fit
  3. Quincebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, clove, mace, cinnamon, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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