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Dessert

Mince Meat

A sweet mixture of currants, apples, suet, sugar, raisins, citrus, spices, and brandy, used as filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a large bowl, combine currants, apples, suet, sugar, raisins, orange juice, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

  2. Add ground mace and allspice, then mix everything well.

Store

  1. Transfer the mixture to a container and cover it tightly.

  2. Store in a cool place.

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

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

  2. Orange + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  4. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide chewy sweetness and fruity body to the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and soft.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness.
Ground mace
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, apple, sugar, raisin, orange, lemon, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, apple, sugar, raisin, orange, lemon, allspice. 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.

More mincemeat recipes

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