Skip to main content
Main

Mince Meat

A minced beef dish mixed with raisins, currants, citron, apples, spices, citrus, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Chop the beef and suet finely.

  2. Mix in the raisins, currants, citron, and chopped tart apples.

Season and store

  1. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, orange juice and rind, lemon juice and rind, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Stir in the light brown sugar until well combined.

  3. Store in a cool place until ready to use.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the meaty body of the mincemeat, giving it substance and savoury depth.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and rich as it matures.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy texture.
Tart apples
Add acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it stands.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, orange. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes