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Minced Meat

A minced beef or tongue mixture with suet, sugar, apples, raisins, currants, spices, lemon, wine, cider, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Minced Meat

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and fruit

  1. Boil the meat in salted water (1 teaspoon salt per quart) until tender.

  2. Let the meat cool completely.

  3. Chop the meat finely.

  4. Wash, pick, and dry the currants.

  5. Prepare the spices.

  6. Seed the raisins.

  7. Pare and core the apples.

  8. Chop the apples finely.

Mix and rest

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped meat, fruit, sugar, spices, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, wine, and brandy.

  2. Mix everything thoroughly.

  3. Let it sit overnight before using.

Store or make pies

  1. To store for several weeks, mix the chopped meat with currants, raisins, sugar, and spices, omitting apples, lemon, wine, and cider.

  2. Moisten the mixture with brandy.

  3. Pack it tightly in a stone jar.

  4. Cover it well.

  5. When ready to make pies, take some of the mixture.

  6. Add chopped apples.

  7. Moisten with cider.

  8. Adjust with wine and brandy to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Beef or tongue
Provides the meaty bulk that gives the mincemeat its body and texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich in mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during storage.
Apples
Adds moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture during storage.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture rest overnight. Resting lets the spices, fruit, alcohol and meat flavors blend and mellow, so the mixture tastes more unified than it does freshly mixed.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice. 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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