Name: Easy-made Mince Meat
Ingredients: 3 cups chopped apples; 2 cups sugar; six pies; salt; vinegar; cloves; nutmeg; cinnamon

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Easy-made Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Mrs. Rhoda E. Kimbrough.
i cup raw Hamburger Lump of butter size of
steak. hulled walnut.
3 cups chopped apples. Yz cup water.
2 cups sugar. % cup of vinegar.
½ cup raisins. Pinch of salt.
Mix meat, apples, and sugar; boil together water, butter, and vinegar, and add to mixture. Add raisins and other fruit if desired. Season with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, to taste. Do not add cinnamon until ready to bake, as it makes the mince meat ropy. This will keep for weeks if kept in cool place, or is ready to use as soon as mixed. This quantity will make six pies.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

172Calories

1 gProtein

1 gFat

42 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pie	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Quincefits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.