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Dessert

Mince Meat

A pie filled with minced beef tongue, suet, dried fruit, citrus, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the beef tongue by cooking it until tender, then chop finely.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped tongue, suet, raisins, currants, chopped apples, oranges (peeled and chopped), citron, candied lemon, sugar, and spices.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie plate with pastry and wet the edges.

  2. Fill the pie plate with the mince meat mixture and cover with another layer of pastry.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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 tongue
Provides the meaty base and body of the traditional mincemeat filling.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.
Raisins
Contribute sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cooking the beef tongue until tender. Tongue must be fully tender before chopping, because any tough or stringy pieces will remain noticeable in the finished filling after baking. Thorough cooking also softens the meat so it blends evenly with the fruit and suet.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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