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Mince-meat

A spiced minced beef mixture with apples, raisins, suet, 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. Chop the suet finely and combine it with salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and mace in a kettle.

  2. Add sugar, molasses, and cider to the kettle and bring to a boil to melt the sugar and suet.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool, then stir in the meat, apples, and raisins.

  4. Finally, mix 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
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it its meaty body.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, when boiled with the suet, helps create a smooth, melted base.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and fresh texture that balances the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar, suet and cider. Bringing the mixture to a boil melts the sugar and suet evenly into the liquid. Letting it cool fully before adding the meat, fruit and whiskey keeps the alcohol's aroma from cooking off and prevents the fruit from breaking down.

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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