Name: Mixce Meat
Ingredients: 4 pounds ground beef; 3 pounds sugar; 1 pound citron; 2 pounds raisins; 4 pounds currants; 2 ounces cinnamon; 1 ounce ground cloves; 2 ounces allspice; 1.5 gallons cider

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mixce Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ground beef until fully browned.
In a large bowl, combine the cooked beef, sugar, citron, raisins, currants, cinnamon, ground cloves, and allspice.
Stir in the cider until well mixed.
Transfer the mixture to a suitable container for storage.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef: Provides the savory, meaty body that the sweet fruit and spices are mixed into.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture by binding water.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Cider: Adds moisture and brings the mixture together.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, aromatic flavor.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, raisin, cinnamon, clove, allspice, cider):

Figfits better
Applefits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, raisin, cinnamon, clove, allspice, cider. 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.