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Mince Meat

A preserved corned beef mixture with apples, raisins, currants, citrus peel, sugar, cider, and spices, cooked slowly and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the corned beef and mix with 2 cups chopped apple.

  2. Chop the raisins, currants, citron, lemon peel, and orange peel, then add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and sugar.

  4. Pour in the sweet cider and mix well.

  5. Cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours, then bottle.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  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

Corned beef
Provides the meaty base and bulk of the filling.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during slow cooking.
Sweet cider
Adds liquid and fruity flavour that softens and blends the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, sugar. 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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