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Mince Meat

A preserved mixture of minced beef, suet, fruit, spices, and wine used for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and suet

  1. Chop the suet and beef very fine.

  2. Mix with plenty of coarse sea salt to remove fresh taste.

Combine and season

  1. Add the apples, sugar, and fruits.

  2. Lastly, add the liquor in which the spices have been steeped.

  3. When ready to use, add more liquor to taste.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides savoury body and a rich, meaty texture to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and gives it a rich mouthfeel.
Apple
Adds moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and aroma while adding liquid to the filling.

The step that matters

Mix with plenty of coarse sea salt. Salt draws out moisture and firms the chopped meat and suet, and it seasons the filling. Too little leaves the meat tasting fresh and under-seasoned, so the mixture should be salted generously as the step directs.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, orange, lemon, cinnamon. 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 mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

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