Skip to main content
Main

Mince Meat

A preserved mixture of beef suet, apples, citrus peel, sugar, nutmeg, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped beef suet, chopped apples, mixed citrus peel, and sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg and spices to taste, then pour in the brandy.

  3. Mix everything together thoroughly.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a jar and store for later 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 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 suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich as it matures.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Mixed citrus peel
Adds bright, aromatic bitterness and fragrance.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that aids preservation and carries the aromatic flavours.

The step that matters

Mix everything together thoroughly. Even distribution of the sugar, fat, and brandy ensures every portion is evenly moist and preserved, rather than leaving pockets that may spoil during storage.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, lemon, orange, sugar, nutmeg, 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes