Name: Condensed Mince Meat
Ingredients: 150 pounds dried evaporated apples; 120 pounds raw beef or 75 pounds cooked beef; 100 pounds raisins; 50 pounds currants; 6 gallons boiled cider or apple cider jelly; 12 pounds mince meat spice; 8 pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 250 pounds granulated sugar

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 ↓

Condensed Mince Meat

Ingredients

150 pounds dried evaporated apples
120 pounds raw beef or 75 pounds cooked beef
100 pounds raisins
50 pounds currants
6 gallons boiled cider or apple cider jelly
12 pounds mince meat spice
8 pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
250 pounds granulated sugar

Directions

Prepare the beef

Cook the beef.
Chop the beef with the spice.
Add the salt to the broth.
Cook the broth down to 2½ gallons.

Make the mince meat

Chop the apples using an Enterprise chopper with the No. 2 plate.
Combine the chopped apples, beef broth, and apple cider or jelly.
Add the sugar.
Mix the batch by hand with an iron shovel.
Pass the mince meat through a mixer.

Shape and store

Press the mixture into squares.
Wrap the squares in waxed paper.
Store the wrapped squares in a carton.

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.

Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried evaporated apples: Provide bulk and fruity body that forms the base of the mince meat.
Beef: Adds savory richness and meaty body to the filling.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Boiled cider: Adds concentrated apple acidity and flavor with moisture.

The step that matters

Cook the broth down to 2½ gallons. Reducing the broth concentrates its flavor and controls the moisture of the mixture. Too much liquid left in would make the mince meat wet and prone to spoiling, while over-reducing can make it overly salty and dense.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Pearfits better
Plumfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, beef, raisin, cider, meat, sugar. 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.