Skip to main content
Dessert

Mince Meat

A sweet meat loaf made with boiled and chopped meat, suet, sugar, molasses, apples, raisins, currants, citron, lemon juice, cider, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large pot.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides body and savoury depth to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the filling moist.
Apples
Contribute moisture, body and a mild tartness that balances the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deepens flavour as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a rich, caramel-like flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat with occasional stirring. The mixture is rich in sugar and fruit, which can scorch and stick to the base of the pot at high heat. Low heat and regular stirring spread the heat evenly, so the filling cooks through and tastes even rather than burnt.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sugar, molasses, apple, raisin, currant, cider. 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 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes