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Heart Mince Meat

A savory dish of boiled heart mixed with apples, raisins, currants, citron, spices, molasses, citrus, and sweetened cider, then stored.

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 meat

  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, then pour it over the mixed ingredients while hot.

  4. Mix thoroughly and store in a covered stone jar in a cool place for future use.

Serve

  1. 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 meaty base that gives the mincemeat its body and savory depth.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Butter and lard
Add fat that enriches texture and carries aroma through the mixture.
Cider
Supplies liquid and acidity that moisten the fruit and meat together.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot cider and fat over the mixture. The mixture must be combined while the cider and fat are still hot so the fat stays liquid and blends evenly. Mixing thoroughly afterward spreads the flavor and moisture through the whole batch.

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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