Skip to main content
Main

Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, suet, dried fruit, spices, and molasses, baked in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and meat

  1. Boil the beef until tender, then let it cool and chop it very fine.

  2. Seed and cut the raisins, wash and dry the currants, slice the citron, and chop the apples.

Make the mixture

  1. In a large pan, combine the chopped beef, suet, raisins, currants, citron, apples, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmegs, lemon juice and rind, salt, pepper, and sugar.

  2. In a kettle, combine the boiled cider (or juice), molasses, optional pickle syrup, and butter; bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the ingredients in the pan and mix thoroughly.

Pack and store

  1. Pack the mixture into jars and store in a cool place.

  2. Once cool, pour a thick layer of molasses over the top and seal tightly.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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

Beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk of the filling after it is boiled and finely chopped.
Beef suet
Adds fat that gives the filling richness and a moist, smooth texture.
Raisins
Contribute sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, depth of flavour and moisture to the mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it along with the molasses.
Tart apples
Add acidity and moisture, balancing the sweetness of the dried fruit.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling liquid over the mixture and stir thoroughly. The hot liquid warms the dense filling so the sugar and spices distribute evenly and the mixture is well combined before packing. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of unevenly flavoured or less preserved filling.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, cinnamon, clove, ginger, 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.

More mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes