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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of boiled tongue, beef suet, currants, raisins, brandy, wine, apples, sugar, and spices, stored for a month.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the boiled tongue and mix with the finely chopped beef suet.

  2. Add currants, raisins, brandy, and wine to the mixture.

  3. Incorporate apples and sugar to your preference.

  4. Season with cloves, cinnamon, mace, citron, and orange peel as desired.

Store and rest

  1. Store in a jar, pressing down firmly and covering tightly.

  2. Let the mixture sit for one month before using.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Wine + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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 filling moist and rich as it rests.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds aroma to the mixture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit sweetness and a chewy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and fruit.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit for one month before using.. Resting lets the spices, alcohol and fruit blend and mellow, so flavours become more even and less sharp. Cooks often use it too early and get harsh, unbalanced flavours.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, brandy, wine, apple, sugar, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, brandy, wine, apple, sugar, clove. 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 mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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