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Miistce Meat

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Miistce Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef and apples.

  2. Add the sugar, citron, raisins, currants, and suet to the mixture.

  3. Pour in the boiled cider and add the coarse sea salt, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  4. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

  5. Add enough sweet cider to make the mixture quite moist.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  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

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sugar, raisin, cider, nutmeg, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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