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Mince Meat

A savory mixture of minced meat, apples, suet, spices, dried fruit, and cider, sweetened with molasses and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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

  1. In a large bowl, combine chopped apples, chopped meat, and suet.

  2. Add the grated lemon rind and juice, molasses, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  3. Stir in raisins, currants, and citron.

  4. Pour in the cider and mix well.

  5. Add sugar and coarse sea salt to taste.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide bulk and tart fruit flavour that balances the sweetness of the mincemeat.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that gives the filling a moist, tender texture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and depth, along with moisture and colour.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Cider
Adds liquid and acidity that moistens the mixture and brightens its flavour.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, meat, molasses, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, meat, molasses, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin. 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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