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Mince Meat I

A pie of chopped salted meat, apples, molasses, vinegar, spices, butter or suet, sugar, butter, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mince Meat I

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Combine chopped meat, chopped apples, molasses, vinegar, butter or suet, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Mix well, adjust sweetness with sugar, and add butter and raisins to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill two pie crusts with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped meat
Provides the savory, substantial body that the filling is built around.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweet and spiced flavours.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep flavour that helps the filling brown.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, sweet filling.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, molasses, vinegar, butter, allspice, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, molasses, vinegar, butter, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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