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Dessert

Mock Mince Meat

A sweet mixture of apples, suet, raisins, spices, sugar, lemon juice, port wine, and lemon rinds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mock Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mince the apples, suet, and raisins.

  2. Add mace, cinnamon, powdered cloves, and powdered sugar.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and port wine.

  4. Mix in the rinds of the lemons.

  5. For added flavor, use boiled cider instead of liquor if desired.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide moisture, bulk, and a tart fruitiness that balances the sweetness.
Suet
Adds fat for richness and a moist, rounded mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve the fruit.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Port wine
Adds liquid and a deep, fruity aroma.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, cinnamon, clove, sugar, lemon, port wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, cinnamon, clove, sugar, lemon, port wine. 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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