Name: Recipe for Mixce Meat
Ingredients: two pounds of meat; one pound beef suet; three pounds of sweet apples; three pounds of sour apples; four pounds of raisins; two pounds of currants; one pound of citron; one-half pound of lemon peel; one tablespoonful salt; one teaspoonful pepper; one tablespoonful ground cloves; one tablespoonful nutmeg; one tablespoonful mace; one tablespoonful allspice; two tablespoonfuls cinnamon; three pounds brown sugar; two quarts sweet cider; one quart boiled cider; one quart currant juice; one quart cherry juice

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat: Provides the savory body and bulk of the filling.
Beef suet: Adds richness and fat that gives the mincemeat a moist, rounded texture.
Sour apples: Contribute acidity and pectin that help the filling hold its body.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and depth, and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Let it come to a boil. Bringing the mixture to a boil heats it through so the sugar and fruit can preserve it. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle, which would give a burnt flavor.

Swap the currant

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

Orangefits better
Figfits better
Limefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, apple, raisin, lemon, pepper, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Mace	not in our table	0
Cider	not in our table	0
Currant	not in our table	0

Recipe for Mixce Meat