Name: Mince Meat
Ingredients: 10 pounds beef (head and tongue); 8 pounds sugar; 6 pounds raisins; 20 pounds apples; 2 ounces cinnamon; 2 ounces allspice; 1 ounce cloves; 1 nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

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

Boil the beef until thoroughly cooked, then set aside to cool.
Remove all meat from the bones and mince it very finely.
Season the minced meat with a little salt.

Make the mincemeat

Add sugar and spices to the meat.
Finely mince the apples and stoned raisins, then add them to the mixture.
Mix everything well and store in jars.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the meaty base and bulk that gives the mixture its savoury body.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture by binding water.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the mince.
Apples: Contribute moisture, tartness and a fresh fruity texture to balance the rich meat.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma that defines the mincemeat's flavour.

Swap the apple

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

Figfits better
Orangefits better
Vanillafits better
Applethe original

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