Skip to main content
Main

Another Mince-meat

A sweet mixture of beef, suet, fruit, spices, and brandy used as a filling for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Another Mince-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the beef, suet, chopped apples, raisins, currants, citron, and sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Add the rose-water, lemon juice, and preserved lemon peel.

  3. Mix in the brandy and spices to taste, being careful not to overuse mace or cloves. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Store and serve

  1. Store in a dry, cool place for weeks if desired.

  2. When ready to use, steam until heated through.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it sits.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture during storage.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the mixture and contributes aroma.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the filling.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Using mace and cloves. Mace and cloves have strong, penetrating flavors that can overwhelm the other ingredients quickly. Adding them gradually and tasting as you go keeps the balance of spices even.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, currant, sugar, rose, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, currant, sugar, rose, 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.

More mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes