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Mince Meat

A spiced minced beef mixture with dried fruit, sweetened with brown sugar and flavored with sherry and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the beef and suet.

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

Season and pack

  1. Add the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, mace, salt, nutmeg, and brown sugar.

  2. Stir in the sherry and brandy until well combined.

  3. Pack the mixture into jars and seal tightly.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps preserve the mixture.
Sherry
Adds moisture and a fruity, aromatic flavour to the mixture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that aids preservation and deepens the aroma.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Seal the jars tightly. Alcohol and sugar preserve the mixture only when it is kept airtight; exposure to air invites spoilage and mould growth.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, clove, allspice, cinnamon, mace. 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 →

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