Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 2 pounds finely chopped beef; 4 pounds stoned raisins; 2 pounds currants, picked and dried; 2.5 pounds beef suet; 2 pounds chopped apples

Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

2 pounds finely chopped beef
4 pounds stoned raisins
2 pounds currants, picked and dried
2.5 pounds beef suet
2 pounds chopped apples

Directions

Combine the finely chopped beef, stoned raisins, picked and dried currants, beef suet, and chopped apples in a large bowl.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.

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.

Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Beef + raisintop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,273 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Beef + appletop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).