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An English Mincemeat Recipe

A preserved fruit mixture of apples, suet, raisins, currants, spices, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

An English Mincemeat Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet into small dice along with the candied lemon peel.

  2. Add the raisins, mace, cinnamon, and lemon juice.

  3. Chop everything together finely.

Combine

  1. Transfer the mixture to a large tub and mix well, adding the currants and whisky.

  2. Incorporate the lemon rind with the suet.

  3. Optionally, add 1 pint of Jamaica rum to enhance the flavor.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Apple + whiskytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together96 recipes

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

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Apples
Provide bulk and moisture, and a tart fruity base.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Whisky
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, lemon, whisky, currant):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, lemon, whisky, currant. 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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