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Dessert

Aunty's Mince Meat

A preserved fruit mixture of suet, raisins, apples, currants, lemon, almonds, spices, sugar, cider, brandy, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Aunty's Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beef suet, Sultana raisins, cooking apples, currants, lemon juice and rind, sweet almonds, butter, nutmegs, cloves, sugar, citron, cider, brandy, and jam. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Store

  1. Cover the mixture with brandy and seal with paper.

  2. Add a little spirits each time you take some from the jar.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the filling.
Sultana raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Cooking apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative when the mixture is kept covered in spirits.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright aroma from the juice and rind.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, apple, lemon, almond, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, lemon, almond, butter, nutmeg. 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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