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Dessert

Lemon Mincemeat

A preserved mixture of lemon rind, apples, suet, currants, sugar, candied citrus, spices, and optional brandy, used for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lemon Mincemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Peel the lemons very thinly and squeeze out the juice, discarding the seeds.

  2. Boil the lemon rind until tender enough to beat into a paste.

Make the mincemeat

  1. In a bowl, combine the lemon paste, chopped apples, suet, currants, sugar, candied lemon and citron, grated nutmeg, powdered mace, salt, and lemon juice. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Transfer the mincemeat to a jar with a tightly fitting lid and let it sit for a week before using.

  3. If desired, add a little brandy before using.

  4. Just before making the pies, mix in the crushed macaroons.

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 + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and currants.
Suet
Adds fat and richness, giving the mincemeat a moist, smooth texture.
Currants
Supply concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during the resting week.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the mincemeat.
Macaroons
Add almond sweetness and a fine crumb that thickens the filling slightly.

The step that matters

Letting the mincemeat rest in a sealed jar. Resting for a week lets the sugar, acid and spices blend and mellow, and the sealed jar keeps the mixture from drying out or spoiling before use.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, apple, currant, sugar, nutmeg, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, apple, currant, sugar, nutmeg, brandy. 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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