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Mince Meat

A spiced minced beef mixture with apples, raisins, currants, suet, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine the chopped beef and apples in a large bowl.

  2. Add the sugar, citron, raisins, currants, and suet.

  3. Stir in the boiled cider, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Serve

  1. When ready to use, add enough sweet cider to make the mixture moist.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and rich texture that gives mincemeat its traditional structure.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and bulk that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it by binding up moisture.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the texture and carries the spice flavours.
Boiled cider
Concentrates apple flavour and adds acidity and depth of sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the mixture.

The step that matters

Mixing thoroughly until well combined. The spices, salt and boiled cider must be evenly distributed, or some bites will be overly strong or bland. Even distribution also helps the sugar and salt draw moisture evenly through the chopped ingredients, keeping the mixture consistent in flavour and texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

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