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Mince Meat

A sweet meat mixture of beef, apples, suet, dried fruit, spices, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef in salted water until very tender.

  2. Let the beef cool, then chop it finely.

Mix and moisten

  1. Chop the apples.

  2. Combine the chopped beef, apples, suet, currants, raisins, citron, and sugar in a large bowl.

  3. Add cloves, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel.

  4. Moisten the mixture with sweet cider until desired consistency is reached.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 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

Beef
Provides the meaty base and rich body that gives the mincemeat its savoury depth.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and dried fruit.
Suet
Adds fat that gives the mixture a rich, soft texture and mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Currants
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

More mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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