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Brooklyn Mince Meat

A mixture of chopped beef, apples, raisins, cider, sugar, and brandy, stored for later use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Brooklyn Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped beef and chopped apples in a large bowl.

  2. Add the stoned raisins, boiled cider, sugar, and brandy, then mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.

  3. Store in a cool place until ready to use.

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

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

  2. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 mincemeat filling.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and bulk that balance the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavour, sweetness and moisture to the filling.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, cider, sugar, brandy):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, cider, sugar, brandy. 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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