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Dessert

English Mince Meat

A preserved mixture of beef or tongue, suet, currants, raisins, apples, spices, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove 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 ↓

English Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh and prepare the beef or tongue, suet, currants, raisins, and apples.

  2. Clean the currants by rubbing them in a cloth.

Combine and store

  1. Add the lemon juice and peel, nutmeg, cloves, mace, pimento, brandy, and wine to the mixture.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a deep jar and cover tightly.

  3. Store in a dry, cool place until ready to use.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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.
Beef or tongue
Provides the meaty body that gives traditional mincemeat its substance.
Currants
Contribute sweetness and chewy body to the fruit mixture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that carries aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, lemon, nutmeg, clove, 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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