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Cooked Meat for Mince Pies

A seasoned beef mixture with apples, suet, raisins, currants, spices, and sweet liquids, used as filling for mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 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 ↓

Cooked Meat for Mince Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Wash the beef and place it in a kettle with enough water to cover it.

  2. Remove the scum as it reaches boiling point.

  3. Add hot water as needed until the beef is tender.

  4. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

  5. Boil the beef uncovered until it is almost dry.

  6. Set the cooked beef aside to cool, preferably overnight.

Make the filling

  1. The next day, remove bones, gristle, and any tough bits from the beef and chop it finely.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, sweet cider, boiled cider, salt, pepper, mace, allspice, cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves.

  3. Mix the mixture thoroughly.

  4. Warm the mixture on the stove until it is heated through.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Stir in the brandy and Madeira wine.

Store

  1. Transfer the mixture to a crock.

  2. Cover the crock tightly.

  3. Store the mixture in a cold place.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 base that gives the filling its body and savory depth.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and keeps the filling moist.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps preserve the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark color, sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the beef uncovered until it is almost dry. Boiling off the water concentrates the meat's flavor and leaves it firm enough to chop finely. If it stays wet, the filling will be watery and may spoil sooner in storage.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

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

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, apple, raisin, sugar, molasses, cider. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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