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Mince Meat

A minced beef mixture with apples, molasses, spices, and raisins, simmered for hours and used in pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef in a little water until very tender, adding more water as needed to prevent burning.

  2. Save ½ pint of the cooking liquid.

  3. Let the meat cool.

  4. Chop the meat finely.

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat with apples, cider, brown sugar, molasses, green tea, suet, reserved cooking liquid, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, salt, and raisins.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Store and use

  1. Store in a covered stone jar to keep without fermenting.

  2. If the mixture is too thick when making pies, warm and thin it with a little cider or fruit juice.

  3. Add a tablespoon of wine or brandy to the pie with grated nutmeg just before covering.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 of the filling once boiled, cooled and finely chopped.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a rich, moist texture to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that gives a rich mouthfeel and helps keep the filling moist.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a robust flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly for 1½ hours. Stirring occasionally prevents the sugar-rich mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pot. Slow simmering also cooks the apples and blends the spices and liquids into a cohesive filling.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cider, sugar, molasses, green tea, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Applethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cider, sugar, molasses, green tea, clove, cinnamon. 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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Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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