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Mince-meat

A preserved beef or tongue mixture with raisins, currants, citron, oranges, cranberries, apples, spices, butter, sugar, brandy, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Mince-meat

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the beef or tongue finely.

  2. Add raisins, currants, chopped citron, orange juice and peel, cranberries, and chopped apples.

  3. Mix in cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Chop well.

Make the sauce and combine

  1. In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, brandy, and cider.

  2. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Pour the sauce over the mince-meat while hot. Stir thoroughly.

Store and use

  1. Store in stone jars until needed.

  2. Add fresh apples as you use the mince-meat, about 3 large apples per pint.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or tongue
Provides the meaty body and savory base that gives mincemeat its traditional character.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and softens the texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps preserve it during storage.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture.
Pippin apples
Contribute tartness, moisture, and bulk to the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, orange, apple, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, orange, apple, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. 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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