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Mince Meat

A sweet minced meat mixture with apples, raisins, currants, sugar, molasses, and spices, cooked until soft.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, mix the chopped meat, chopped apple, raisins, currants, brown sugar, molasses (or granulated sugar), and meat liquor.

  2. Add salt, cinnamon, mace, cloves, lemon rind and juice, citron, and rosewater if desired, then mix well.

  3. Ensure the mixture is moist, adding more meat liquor if necessary.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook over low heat until the apples and raisins are soft.

  2. Stir in the boiling sweet cider and chopped suet, mixing thoroughly.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped meat
Provides the savoury body and richness that defines the mincemeat.
Apple
Adds moisture and tartness, and softens into the filling as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Chopped suet
Adds fat, giving the filling richness and a smooth, moist texture.
Meat liquor
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to keep the mixture moist.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until the apples and raisins are soft. Low, gentle heat softens the fruit evenly without scorching the sugars, which can burn quickly. Fully softened fruit blends into a uniform filling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, apple, raisin, currant, sugar, molasses, cinnamon):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, raisin, currant, sugar, molasses, cinnamon. 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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