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Dessert

Mince Pie a LA Francaise

A puff pastry pie filled with minced meat, baked and dusted with icing sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mince Pie a LA Francaise

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut the pastry into two pieces.

  3. Place one piece on a greased baking tin.

  4. Brush the pastry with cold water.

Assemble the pie

  1. Shape the mince meat into a round, flat mound.

  2. Place the meat mound in the center of the pastry.

  3. Cover with the second piece of pastry.

  4. Press the edges together.

  5. Trim the pastry to size using a plate.

  6. Brush the top with beaten egg.

  7. Create a decorative design on the surface.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  2. Dust with icing sugar.

  3. Return to the oven.

  4. Bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

  5. Serve warm on a hot dish.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered case that encloses the filling and puffs when baked.
Mince meat
Provides the rich, sweet-spiced filling that fills the pie.
Egg
Brushed on top to help the pastry turn golden brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Brush the pastry with cold water before covering. Cold water acts as a glue so the two pastry layers seal at the edges and stay together while baking. Puff pastry also needs to stay cold so its fat creates layers rather than melting out.

“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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