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English Mince Meat

A preserved meat mixture of beef, suet, currants, raisins, apples, spices, and wine, used as pie filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

English Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh and prepare the beef or tongue, ensuring it is cooked and free from skin and strings.

  2. Chop the suet and combine it with the cleaned currants, chopped raisins, and chopped apples in a deep jar.

Season and store

  1. Add the lemon juice and peel, grated nutmeg, ground cloves, ground mace, and ground pimento to the mixture.

  2. Pour in the brandy and wine, then mix everything thoroughly.

  3. Cover the jar and store it in a dry, cool place.

Serve

  1. For serving, add some citron, orange, and lemon peel to the pies when made.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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

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

  5. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 savoury bulk of the filling.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and tender when baked.
Currants
Contribute sweetness, chewy texture and plump juiciness to the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mixture.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body that balances the sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture during storage.

The step that matters

Store the mixture covered in a dry, cool place. Meat, suet and fruit are perishable and the mixture relies on its spirits and cool, dry conditions to keep well. Keeping it covered limits drying and contamination.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, lemon, nutmeg, clove, mace. 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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