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Dessert

Plain Mince-meat

A mixture of boiled beef, suet, dried fruit, spices, wine, molasses, cider, and brandy, left to sit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 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 ↓

Plain Mince-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the beef gently in enough water to cover it until tender.

  2. Cool the beef and chop it finely.

Combine and mature

  1. Add suet, raisins, currants, citron, apples, sugar, nutmegs, salt, pepper, ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon, mace, essence of lemon, wine, molasses, sweet cider, and brandy to the chopped beef.

  2. Moisten the mixture with some of the pot-liquor from boiling the beef, adding the fat that forms on top.

  3. Adjust the seasoning to taste and let it sit for a day before using.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty base and bulk that the rest of the mixture is folded into.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, silky texture as it coats the fruit and spices.
Raisins
Contribute sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Apples
Add tartness and moisture, balancing the sugar and rich fat.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during its resting day.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mincemeat.

The step that matters

Adjusting the seasoning before the resting day. Spices and sweeteners soften and blend over time, so tasting only at the end can leave the mixture too strong or too flat. Seasoning to taste before resting lets the flavours meld and gives a more balanced result once the mincemeat has matured.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, sugar, nutmeg, pepper, 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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