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Mince Pies

A savory pie filled with beef or tongue, apples, raisins, and spices, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Mince Pies

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef or tongue until tender.

  2. Remove the bones.

  3. Chop the meat finely.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in chopped apples, butter or suet, and moisten with cider, wine, or brandy.

  2. Add sugar, molasses, spices, raisins, citron, and currants to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill shallow pie plates with the mixture.

  2. Cover with an upper crust, making a small opening.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or tongue
Provides the meaty body of the filling, becoming tender when boiled before chopping.
Tart apples
Add moisture and a bright acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Butter or fine suet
Adds fat that enriches the filling and gives it a rich, mellow texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the molasses, deepens the dark color and flavor of the filling.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep, robust flavor to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the meat until tender. The meat must be fully tender before it is chopped, because collagen in tougher cuts only softens with long, moist cooking. Undercooked meat stays chewy in the finished filling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, butter, cider, sugar, molasses, cinnamon):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, butter, cider, sugar, molasses, 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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