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Dessert

Lemon Mince Meat

A preserved mixture of lemon zest, apples, suet, currants, sugar, spices, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Lemon Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Peel the lemons very thin and squeeze the juice from them.

  2. Boil the lemon rind until tender enough to rub into a paste.

Make and store the mincemeat

  1. Combine the lemon paste with the remaining ingredients.

  2. Store the mixture in a jar, tightly covered.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Apples
Provide bulk and moisture that give the mincemeat its body.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Lemons
Supply acidity and aroma from both the juice and the rind paste.

The step that matters

Boiling the lemon rind until tender. The rind must be cooked fully soft so it rubs into a smooth paste. Undercooked rind stays tough and gritty in the finished mincemeat, while the cooking softens its bitter pith and tenderises the peel.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, apple, sugar, syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, apple, sugar, syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. 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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