Skip to main content

Delicious and Delicate Mince Pies

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Delicious and Delicate Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the beef until tender, then let it cool in a colander.

  2. Chop the beef very fine and mix with enough syrup to hold it together.

  3. Add spices to taste and pack the mixture tightly in a jar.

  4. Cover with muslin dipped in syrup and store in a cool place.

  5. When ready to use, combine 1 pint of the meat with 1 quart of chopped apples, 1 pint of Madeira wine, and ⅓ cup of brandy.

  6. Add the currants, raisins, and citron, then mix well.

  7. Sweeten with sugar to taste before using.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, syrup, cinnamon, clove, apple, madeira wine, brandy):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  3. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, syrup, cinnamon, clove, apple, madeira wine, brandy. 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).

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes