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Home Made Mince Meat

A sweet and spiced minced meat mixture for filling pies, containing apples, raisins, currants, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Home Made Mince Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Combine chopped meat, beef suet, chopped apples, sugar, molasses, salt, cinnamon, ground cloves, grated nutmeg, raisins, currants, shredded citron, meat liquor, boiled cider, brandy, and tart jelly in a large bowl, then mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill your pie crusts with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle a little sugar on top and place 12 plump raisins (with seeds removed) on each pie.

  3. Cover with a rich crust and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Molasses
Contributes dark sweetness and moisture, and helps the filling brown.
Tart apples
Provide acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown as it bakes.
Chopped meat
Adds savoury body and texture to the filling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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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