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Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef tongue, suet, dried fruit, spices, apples, and sweet cider or molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the beef's tongue until tender.

  2. Chop the suet finely.

Mix and preserve

  1. Combine the tongue, suet, raisins, currants, lemon, orange peel, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and apples in a large bowl.

  2. Mix well and add sweet cider or molasses to preserve.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef's tongue
Provides the meaty bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender texture.
Raisins
Adds sweetness and chewy moisture.
Currants
Adds sweetness and concentrated fruit flavour.
Apples
Adds moisture and body to the filling.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, lemon, orange, cinnamon, clove, mace):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, lemon, orange, cinnamon, clove, mace. 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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