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Mince Meat II

A preserved minced beef mixture with suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, sugar, and cider, sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 II

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the lean beef until tender, then let it cool and chop it finely.

  2. Mince the suet to a powder.

  3. Pare and chop the apples.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine the chopped beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, salt, brown sugar, and boiled cider in a large pot.

  2. Mix well and heat through.

  3. Seal the mixture in jars.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty body that gives mincemeat its traditional substance.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated acidity and sweetness along with preserving liquid.

The step that matters

Heat through after mixing. Heating the combined mixture helps blend the flavors and dissolve the sugar. Sealing the mixture into jars while it is hot is what keeps it stable for storage, so the heating must be thorough.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, clove, allspice, mace):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, clove, allspice, mace. 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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