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Preserve

Mince Meat

A spiced mixture of chopped beef, suet, apples, dried fruit and brandy, packed in jars for keeping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil beef until tender.

  2. Cool the beef and chop it finely.

  3. Mix the chopped beef with 3 pounds of finely chopped suet.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of salt, 6 pounds of apples, 4 pounds of currants, 6 pounds of raisins, and 2 pounds of citron.

  2. Season with powdered cinnamon, mace, cloves, and nutmeg to taste.

  3. Add boiled cider, brandy, and wine until the mixture is soft, then mix well.

Pack and store

  1. Pack into stone jars, pouring brandy over the top.

  2. Cover tightly.

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

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

  3. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and moisture, and keeps the filling soft and rounded in flavour.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy, fruity texture.
Apples
Add moisture and a gentle tartness that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, cinnamon, apple, lemon, nutmeg, wine. 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 mincemeat recipes

Mock Pie 26Pie 21Lemon 15Fritters 14Green Tomato 13Pies 13 See all 120 →

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