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Mince Meat,

A preserved meat mixture of beef, apples, sugar, currants, candied peel, spices, brandy, and lemon juice.

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

Mince Meat,

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Stew the lean beef until tender.

  2. Chop the beef finely and mix with beef suet and apples.

Combine and store

  1. Add sugar, currants, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel, citron peel, mixed spices, lemon rind rubbed on sugar, brandy or wine, and lemon juice, then mix thoroughly and store in a jar 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the bulk of the meat, becoming tender when stewed and then finely chopped.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the mixture.
Brandy or wine
Adds liquid and aroma, and its alcohol aids preservation.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart note that balances the sweetness.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Blackberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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

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