Skip to main content
Main

Mother's Mince Meat

A minced beef mixture with suet, apples, raisins, citron, sugar, cider, and spices, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mother's Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the beef until very tender and chop it finely.

  2. Chop the suet and apples finely.

Combine and season

  1. Combine the beef, suet, apples, raisins, citron, brown sugar, and boiled cider in a large bowl.

  2. Add the ground cloves, allspice, salt, and grated nutmeg. Mix well and adjust sweetness with vinegar if necessary.

Store

  1. Store in a cool place.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty body of the filling once boiled and finely chopped.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the mincemeat.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Raisins
Contribute sweetness, chewy texture and body to the mixture.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it with its moisture content.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavour and acidity, and extra sweetness and moisture.

The step that matters

Adjust sweetness with vinegar. Brown sugar and boiled cider make the mixture very sweet, and vinegar's acidity can brighten and balance that sweetness. Add it gradually, tasting as you go, because too much will make the mincemeat sharp.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, sugar, cider, clove, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sugar, cider, clove, allspice, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes