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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, molasses, cider, spices, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef until fairly well cooked, then chop or grind it very fine.

Make the mince meat

  1. Mix in the apples, suet, raisins, currants, citron, brown sugar, molasses, sweet cider, salt, black pepper, mace, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves thoroughly.

  2. Heat the mixture slowly on the stove and boil for half an hour.

Jar and store

  1. Fill pint and quart jars to the brim with hot mince meat and screw the tops down tight immediately.

  2. Stir in the brandy after the mince meat has cooled nearly completely, then pack into stone crocks and cover tightly.

  3. Store in a very cool place where it will not freeze.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty body and savoury base of the mince meat.
Hard green apples
Add tartness and moist bulk that balances the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Suet
Adds fat that gives a rich, moist texture as the mixture cools.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture through its sugar content.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark colour and a robust flavour.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding brandy. Brandy is alcohol that evaporates when hot, so adding it only after the mince meat has cooled nearly completely keeps more of its flavour and alcohol in the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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