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Mince Meat

A savory minced meat dish with suet, raisins, currants, figs, and spices, cooked with cider and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

  1. Cook the meat until very tender, preferably using beef neck for better flavor.

  2. Chop the suet and fruits after seeding the raisins and cleaning the currants.

Combine

  1. Combine the chopped fruit with the meat and suet.

  2. Add the spices, followed by the sugar, molasses, brandy, and cider.

  3. Grate in the nutmeg and add the salt.

  4. Note: The brandy can be omitted, but it helps preserve the meat longer.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Chopped meat
Provides the bulk and savory body of the mincemeat.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the mixture moist.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and a rich, sweet flavor.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture that balance the sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture, as the record notes.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, sugar, molasses, apple, cinnamon, 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.

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