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Mince Meat

A fruit and spice-infused minced meat cooked with beef tongue, heart, suet, apples, raisins, currants, dates, figs, and aromatic spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 28 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

  1. Simmer the beef tongue and heart until tender.

  2. Cool in the cooking liquid.

  3. Chop the beef suet and apples finely.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the stock, raisins, currants, citron, orange peel, lemon peel, dates, and figs.

  2. In a pot, combine the sherry, apple cider, brown sugar, and molasses over heat.

  3. Stir in the spices, pepper, and salt to taste.

  4. Add the grated rinds and juices of the orange and lemons.

  5. Mix everything well and store in covered jars.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Apple + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 mince moist and rich as it stands.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Light brown sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Cooking sherry
Adds aroma and depth while helping to preserve the mixture.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma that defines the mincemeat's flavour.

The step that matters

Combine the sugar and molasses over heat. Heating the sugar, molasses and liquids until the sugar dissolves helps them blend evenly and gives a smooth syrup that coats the fruit and meat. Overheating can scorch the molasses and make it bitter.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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