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Dessert

Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, suet, apples, currants, citron, lemon, spices, cider, and brandy, baked in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook 5 pounds of lean beef for 5 hours the day before making the mince meat.

  2. Wash, dry, and pick 8 pounds of currants the day before use.

Make and jar the mince meat

  1. In a porcelain kettle, mix the cooked beef, chopped suet, chopped apples, currants, citron, lemon, and spices.

  2. Add the cider and brandy, then cook for 5 minutes over heat.

  3. Transfer the hot mixture into glass jars, sealing them hermetically with a tablespoon of hot brandy in each jar.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk of the filling.
Beef suet
Adds fat that makes the filling rich and moist.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart note that balances the sweetness.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy, fruity texture throughout the filling.
White granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds body to the preserved mixture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to the filling.

The step that matters

Transfer the hot mixture into glass jars. Filling jars while the mixture is hot drives out air, which helps create a vacuum seal as the jars cool. Adding hot brandy to each jar supports the seal.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, sugar, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sugar, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, lemon. 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 mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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