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Mince-meat

A savory mixture of chopped beef, suet, dried fruit, apples, spices, brandy, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Mince-meat

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince-meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef, suet, raisins, currants, and chopped apples.

  2. Add the moist sugar, candied peels, ground ginger, allspice, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and grated peel, grated nutmeg, brandy, and sherry, then mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef-kidney suet
Adds fat that melts slightly during storage, giving the mixture a moist, rich texture.
Moist sugar
Provides sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy body and moisture to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit sweetness and a chewy texture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the mixture and contributes aroma.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, apple, sugar, orange, lemon, ginger):

  1. Cranberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, sugar, orange, lemon, ginger. 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.

More mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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