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Dessert

Superlative Mincemeat

A sweet, spiced fruit mixture used as filling for mince pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Superlative Mincemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mincemeat

  1. Boil the lemons until tender.

  2. Chop the lemons small, removing all the seeds.

  3. Combine the chopped lemons with the other prepared ingredients and mix well.

  4. Add 3 to 4 cups of brandy and mix thoroughly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter some tin pattypans.

  2. Line them with thin puff pastry.

  3. Fill the pastry with the mincemeat.

  4. Moisten the edges.

  5. Cover with another layer of pastry.

  6. Trim excess pastry.

  7. Make a small hole in the center.

  8. Optionally ice with cold water and sifted sugar.

  9. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes, covering with paper if they brown too quickly.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 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

Golden pippins
Apples add bulk, moisture and a tart flavour that balances the sugar.
Suet
Fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it bakes.
Pounded sugar
Sweetness that also helps preserve the mincemeat.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the filling.
Raisins
Provide chewy sweetness and body to the filling.
Puff pastry (in the method)
Flaky, layered crust that puffs and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Covering with paper if they brown too quickly. Sugar and fruit in the filling and pastry brown fast in the oven. Covering the tarts with paper slows browning so the pastry cooks through without burning.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, 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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