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Health Mince Meat

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Health Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine chopped meat and chopped apples in a large bowl.

  2. Stir in molasses, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Add butter, strong coffee, jelly, vinegar, currants, and raisins.

  4. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove, pepper, ginger):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove, pepper, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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