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Mince-meat

A sweet meat mixture of cooked beef, apples, raisins, suet, spices, molasses, cider, and whiskey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Mince-meat

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 filling

  1. Chop the cooked beef and measure it into a bowl.

  2. Add 2 bowls of chopped apples and 1 bowl of chopped raisins to the beef and mix well.

Make the spiced base

  1. In a kettle, combine the chopped suet, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, mace, sugar, molasses, and cider.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil to melt the sugar and suet and mix the spices.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

Combine and finish

  1. Once cool, add the meat, apples, and raisins to the mixture and stir in the whiskey.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. 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

Cooked beef
Provides the bulk and meaty body of the filling.
Suet
Melts into the mixture to add richness and a moist, tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and molasses.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and a slightly bitter sweetness.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and fresh fruity bulk to the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Melt the suet and sugar fully before cooling. Heating the suet and sugar until they melt lets the fat and sweetener distribute evenly through the spices, so the mixture sets evenly as it cools rather than separating into greasy and gritty pockets.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, 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.

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