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Dessert

Manufacture of Mincemeat

A preserved mixture of beef, suet, apples, citrus, and dried fruit for pies and desserts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Manufacture of Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef in simmering water until tender.

  2. Cool the beef overnight.

  3. Chop the beef finely.

  4. Shred the beef suet.

  5. Chop the beef suet finely.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Core the apples.

  2. Peel the apples.

  3. Chop the apples.

  4. Chop the citron.

  5. Chop the lemon peels.

  6. Chop the candied orange peels.

  7. Stir the layer raisins.

  8. Wash the seedless raisins.

Combine

  1. Mix all the chopped ingredients together.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk that gives mincemeat its substance.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the mixture moist and carries flavour.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk that balance the sweet dried fruit.
Layer raisins
Supply concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mixture.
Seedless raisins
Add sweetness and soft, chewy texture that blends into the filling.
Currants
Add small bursts of sweetness and tart fruit flavour in the finished mixture.

The step that matters

Chop the beef finely. Fine chopping after the meat cools gives an even texture so the meat doesn't form large, tough pieces. Cooling first makes the beef firm enough to cut cleanly.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, lemon, orange, raisin. 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 mincemeat recipes

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