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Mince Meat

A stew of lean beef, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, spices, cider, and apples, boiled slowly and packed in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil and chop the beef.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine the chopped beef, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, lemon rinds and juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, cider, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Add the apples, using 2 quarts for every quart of meat.

  3. Boil slowly together for nearly 2 hours.

Store

  1. Pack the mixture tightly in a jar and store in a cold place.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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 of the stew, giving it substance and a rich savoury base.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and gives it a rich, rounded texture.
Raisins
Supply concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture as they soften during the long simmer.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it, balancing the spices and tartness.
Apples
Add moisture, bulk and a tart fruitiness that breaks down into the stew.
Cider
Adds liquid and acidity, carrying the fruit and spice flavours through the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil slowly together for nearly 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets the beef and apples soften and the flavours blend without scorching the sugary fruit on the bottom of the pot. Boiling too hard can burn the sugars and toughen the meat.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. 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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