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Mince Meat

A mixture of boiled beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, sherry, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and fruit

  1. Boil the beef until tender, then let it cool and chop it finely.

  2. Mince the beef suet, ensuring all strings are removed.

  3. Peel and chop the apples, then combine them with the chopped raisins, sultana raisins, currants, and citron in a large bowl.

Combine and season

  1. Add the chopped beef and suet to the fruit mixture.

  2. Stir in the brown sugar, brown sherry, and brandy until well combined.

  3. Add the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt, and grated nutmeg, mixing thoroughly.

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

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

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty body and bulk of the mincemeat filling.
Beef suet
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it carries fat through the filling.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness and bulk that balance the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while adding depth of flavour.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mixture through its alcohol content.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, sugar, sherry, brandy, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, sugar, sherry, brandy, cinnamon. 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 mince meat recipes

Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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