Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 1 pound of minced meat; 1 cup of chopped apples; 1 cup of raisins; 1 cup of brown sugar; 1 teaspoon of cinnamon; 1 teaspoon of nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon of salt; 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine minced meat, chopped apples, and raisins.
Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and lemon juice.
Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.
Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Use to fill pies or patties.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon):

Orangefits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.