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Mince Meat

A sweet, spiced meat dish made with boiled tongues, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, nutmegs, spices, citrus, sugar, brandy, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 the fruit and meat

  1. Boil and chop the tongues; this makes about 5 large cupfuls.

  2. Chop the greening apples and add to the mixture.

  3. Chop the suet finely and mix it in.

  4. Stone the raisins and add them to the bowl.

  5. Add the currants and chopped citron.

Season and combine

  1. Grate the nutmegs and add them along with the cinnamon and allspice.

  2. Add the juice and rind of the oranges and lemons.

  3. Stir in the sugar, brandy, and sherry.

  4. Mix everything thoroughly, adding salt and pepper generously.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and acts as a preservative in the mixture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness, chewy body and moisture.
Greening apples
Add tartness and moisture that balances the sweetness.
Tongues
Add meaty richness and savoury body to the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, orange, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, orange, lemon. 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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