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Dessert

Mince Meats

A mixture of suet, dried fruit, apples, sugar, citrus peel, spices, brandy, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 Meats

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop all the ingredients very fine.

  2. Mix them thoroughly together.

Combine and store

  1. Add the brandy and wine.

  2. Mix well and put it in a pot ready for use.

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

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

  2. Plum + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Plum + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture through its fat, giving the mincemeat a soft texture.
Currants
Provide chewy body and concentrated sweetness throughout the mixture.
Cooking apples
Add moisture and a little acidity, helping bind the fruit and suet together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
French brandy
Its alcohol aids preservation and adds a warm aroma.
Stoned malaga plums
Contribute sweetness, soft body and depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Add the brandy and wine. Alcohol helps preserve the mincemeat and carries its aroma. Mixing it in thoroughly ensures every part of the batch is evenly preserved and flavoured.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, plum, apple, sugar, orange, lemon, brandy. 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

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

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