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Mince Meat

A minced beef mixture with apples, raisins, candied fruit, spices, and sweet liquids, left to ripen before use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and meat

  1. Chop the beef and suet very fine and mix them together.

  2. Add the chopped apples to the mixture.

  3. Seed the raisins, chop the candied fruit, candied lemon peel, and orange peel, and slice the citron.

  4. Add these to the meat and suet mixture along with the currants, spices, and salt.

Add the liquids and ripen

  1. Mix well and then add the sugar, molasses, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  2. Once well mixed, add the brandy, sherry, and cider.

  3. Let the mixture stand for several days to ripen or blend 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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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

Beef
Provides the meaty body and richness that bulks out the mincemeat.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it ripens.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth of flavour, and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Contribute moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that aids preservation and contributes aroma during ripening.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for several days to ripen. Resting lets the spices, fruit, alcohol and fats mellow and blend into a cohesive flavour. Using it immediately gives a sharper, less integrated taste.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, orange, molasses, clove, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, orange, molasses, clove, brandy. 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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