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Thanksgiving Mince Meat

A preserved minced beef mixture with suet, apples, spices, and sweeteners, stored in jars for later use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cooked beef finely using a meat chopper.

  2. Add the chopped suet, tart apples, sugar, molasses, raisins, currants, and shredded citron to the beef.

  3. Stir in the sweet cider, boiled cider, and meat stock.

  4. Mix in the cinnamon, salt, cloves, white pepper, mace, allspice, nutmeg, and tart jelly.

  5. Add any additional juice from preserves or jelly, if desired.

  6. Optionally, mix in candied peel, chopped prunes, or cold coffee.

Pack and ripen

  1. Pack the mixture into glass jars without cooking.

  2. Allow the mince meat to ripen for at least two weeks 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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk that the mincemeat is built around.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the filling.
Tart apples
Contribute moisture, body, and a bright acidity that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it during long ripening.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color, and a robust sweetness.
Tart jelly
Adds fruit acidity and a set-friendly body that binds the filling together.

The step that matters

Packing without cooking. The mixture is never heated, so its safety and flavor depend on sugar, spirit-free acidity, and the long ripening period. Packing it tightly into clean jars and allowing the full ripening time lets the flavors blend and keeps the filling stable.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, sugar, molasses, raisin, cider, meat):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sugar, molasses, raisin, cider, meat. 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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