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Dessert

Mince Meat

A sweet dish of boiled meat, suet, sugar, molasses, apples, raisins, currants, citron, lemon juice, cider, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 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

Boiled and chopped meat
Adds savoury body and a rich, meaty texture to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat, which gives richness and a moist, tender mouthfeel.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the mixture taste rounded and deep.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavour.
Apples
Add moisture, body and a tart brightness that balances the sweetness.
Seeded raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture throughout the mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring during the 2-hour low-heat cook. Sugars and molasses can scorch on the base of the pot during long cooking. Low heat and occasional stirring spread the heat evenly and keep the mixture from burning or sticking.

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.

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