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Mince Meat

A mixture of boiled tongue, suet, currants, raisins, citron, spices, sugar, lemon, rose water, wine, brandy, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the boiled tongue and suet finely.

  2. Mix in the currants, raisins, citron, and spices.

Make the mince meat

  1. Add the powdered sugar, juice and zest of the lemons, rose water, wine, brandy, and salt.

  2. When making pies, chop a pippin (apple) finely and add it to the mince meat.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled tongue
Provides the meaty body and bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Currants
Supply sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the spices and acidity.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, mace, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, mace, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sugar. 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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