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Mrs. D.’s Mince Pies

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

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

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

  2. Let the mixture sit for a few hours or overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Assemble and bake

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Roll out your pastry and line your pie dishes.

  3. Fill the pastry with the mince mixture and cover with another layer of pastry.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until the crust is 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.

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 bulk and substance of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning of the filling.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps carry the spice flavors through the filling.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture sit. Resting the filling for a few hours or overnight lets the spices, fruit and liquids blend, so the flavors meld rather than tasting separate. Skipping this rest leaves the filling sharper and less cohesive.

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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