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Mince Meat

A sweet meat dish made with beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour, adding a little water as needed. Stir carefully to prevent sticking.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty body and savoury base of the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the long cook.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and body that balance the sweetness.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the cook.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it during long cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring and adding water during the cook. The mixture is thick and rich with sugar and fat, so it can scorch on the bottom of the pot. Stirring spreads heat evenly, and small additions of water loosen it while the apples and raisins soften, reducing the risk of sticking.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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