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Dessert

English Mince Meat

A sweet mixture of dried fruit, spices, apples, and sugar used for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,339 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the ingredients in the order given, except the grated lemon and orange rind and spices.

  2. Cook in a porcelain kettle until the mixture boils and the apples are transparent.

  3. When cool, add the spices and orange and lemon rinds.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Meat + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Clove + macetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw meat
Provides the savoury base and body that the fruit and sugar are cooked with.
Suet
Adds fat that gives the filling richness and a moist, smooth mouthfeel.
Apples
Break down during cooking to add moisture and bulk to the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the mixture.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple acidity and sweetness that carries the spices.

The step that matters

Cook until the apples are transparent. The mixture must boil long enough for the apples to soften fully and the filling to thicken and blend. Stopping early leaves firm fruit and a loose, unevenly cooked mincemeat.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, currant, sugar, apple, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Allspicebetter flavor fit
  3. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, currant, sugar, apple, clove, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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