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Mince Meat

A savory mixture of boiled tongue, suet, apples, dried fruit, spices, and cider, stored as a loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

makes about 4 gallons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and meat

  1. Boil the tongue until tender and chop finely.

  2. Chop the beef suet and apples, then weigh them after chopping.

  3. Combine the chopped tongue, suet, apples, raisins, currants, figs, almonds, and citron in a large bowl.

Make the spiced mixture

  1. In a saucepan, boil the cider down to 1 quart.

  2. Add the boiled cider, brown sugar, fruit juice, melted currant jelly, lemon juice and rind, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and cinnamon to the mixture.

  3. Mix thoroughly and add cranberries and leftover syrup if desired.

Store

  1. Store in a cool place; this recipe makes about 4 gallons.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 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 richness and fat that keeps the mincemeat moist and rich in flavour.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and body to the filling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness, body and fruity flavour that binds the filling.
Cider
Adds acidity and fruity flavour as it is reduced.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, fig, almond, cider, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, fig, almond, cider, sugar. 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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