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Minge Meat

A spiced preserved meat mixture with citrus, spices, and sweeteners.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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 ↓

Minge Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients in the order given and season with salt.

  2. Reduce the liquor in which the meat was cooked to 3 cups.

  3. Add the reduced liquor to the mixture, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 1.5 hours.

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

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

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the savoury, meaty body of the mincemeat.
Beef suet
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts into the filling.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it.
Molasses
Adds dark color and deep, treacle-like sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmering the reduced liquor with the mixture. Simmering for a full 1.5 hours lets the flavors meld and the fruit soften while thickening the filling. Bringing it to a boil first and holding a gentle simmer prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot, since the sugar and molasses can burn easily.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, lemon, orange, apple, cider, cinnamon, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, lemon, orange, apple, cider, cinnamon, vinegar. 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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