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Dessert

Tomato Mincemeat

A sweet tomato mincemeat made with tomatoes, raisins, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cover tomatoes with cold water and simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the tomatoes again.

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a pot, combine brown sugar, raisins, chopped citron, salt, vinegar, and butter or suet.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly until it thickens.

  3. Once cooled, add cloves, cassia, and nutmeg.

  4. Transfer to jars.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Cassia + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the filling and provide moisture and body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks down.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the filling.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture slowly until it thickens. Cooking gently lets moisture evaporate evenly and sugars dissolve without scorching the bottom of the pot, which would give a burnt flavour and uneven texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, vinegar, butter, clove, cassia, nutmeg):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, vinegar, butter, clove, cassia, nutmeg. 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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