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Mince Meat

A savory meat mixture of beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citrus, spices, sugar, Madeira wine, and brandy, cooked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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

  1. Chop the beef and suet finely, removing any skin and string.

  2. Pare and core the apples, then chop them.

  3. Chop the citron peel very fine.

Cook and store

  1. Combine the beef, suet, apples, citron peel, currants, raisins, orange juice and rind, lemon juice and rind, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and brown sugar in a large pot.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Add the Madeira wine and brandy, then stir well.

  4. Pack the mixture into a stone jar and cover tightly.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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 suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Lean beef
Provides the meaty body that gives the mincemeat its substance.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the mixture and adds depth of flavour and some preservation.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that aids preservation and carries the spice aroma.
Madeira wine
Adds fortified wine sweetness and aroma that deepen the flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture slowly for 1 hour. Gentle heat cooks the raw beef and blends the fruit, sugar and spices without scorching the sugars or drying the mixture. Too much heat can burn the sugar and make the mincemeat bitter.

Swap the currant

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

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

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