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Mince Meat

A savory dish of boiled beef mixed with apples, molasses, cider, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine apples, molasses, vinegar, cider, suet or butter, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, black pepper, and grated lemon zest and juice in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until the raisins are tender.

  3. Pour the mixture over the chopped beef and spices.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 savory bulk that defines traditional mincemeat.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness as they soften during boiling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture through its thick, syrupy body.
Suet or butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, moist mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until the raisins are tender. Boiling softens the dried fruit and lets the flavors meld. Stopping too early leaves hard raisins and a thin, unintegrated filling.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, molasses, vinegar, cider, butter, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, molasses, vinegar, cider, butter, sugar. 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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