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Mince Meat

A sweet and spiced minced beef mixture with apples, raisins, currants, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, molasses, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef until fully cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Chop the cooled beef finely.

Combine

  1. Chop the beef suet and apples.

  2. In a large bowl, mix the chopped beef, suet, apples, raisins, and currants.

  3. Add the ground cinnamon, grated nutmegs, brown sugar, molasses, and citron to the mixture.

  4. Stir everything together until well combined.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Beef
Provides the meaty body and substance of the filling once cooked and chopped.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it stands.
Apples
Contribute moisture and a fresh tartness that balances the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps preserve the mixture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel flavour.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, molasses. 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 mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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