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Heart Mince Meat

A preserved meat dish made from boiled heart, apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, molasses, and cider, stored in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Heart Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the heart

  1. Boil the heart in its own liquid until tender, then chop it finely.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Combine the chopped heart with chopped apples, raisins, currants, citron, nutmeg, mace, molasses, orange, lemon, and salt.

  2. Boil the cider with enough sugar to sweeten it.

  3. Add the butter and lard to the boiling cider.

  4. Pour the hot butter and lard mixture over the mixed ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Store and serve

  1. Store in a covered stone jar in a cool place for future use.

  2. Before serving, if desired, add 1 spoonful of brandy for each portion.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

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

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or ox heart
Provides the main meat, which becomes finely chopped and forms the body of the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, rich flavor to the mincemeat.
Butter and lard
Add fat and richness, giving the mixture a moist, tender texture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweetness of the dried fruit and molasses.
Raisins and currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture through the filling.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, meat, raisin, nutmeg, mace, molasses. 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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