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New Orleans Mince Meat

A savory‑sweet mixture of boiled beef, suet, dried fruit, spices, and brandy, packed in a jar and served with apple, vinegar, and citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

New Orleans Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the boiled beef and suet finely.

  2. Mix the beef, suet, raisins, currants, citron, and spices in a bowl.

  3. Pack the mixture into an earthen jar.

  4. Pour the brandy over the top and cover tightly.

Use the mincemeat

  1. To use, take out 1 quart of mince meat.

  2. Add chopped apple, vinegar, molasses, sugar, melted butter, orange juice, lemon juice, and grated rinds.

  3. Thin with cider or water if needed.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Provides fat that keeps the filling moist and rich.
Brandy
Acts as a preservative and adds aroma to the packed mixture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture.
Boiled beef
Supplies the meaty body of the filling.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace. 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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