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Mince Meat

A savory mixture of beef, dried fruits, spices, sugar, molasses, and alcohol simmered and stored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 the beef

  1. Boil the beef until it falls apart, then chop it finely.

  2. Let the cooking liquid from the beef sit overnight, then remove the fat.

Make the mincemeat

  1. Add currants, raisins, chopped citron, and chopped apples.

  2. Mix in coarse sea salt, powdered cloves, cinnamon, allspice, grated nutmegs, sugar, and molasses.

  3. Add the cooking liquid to the mixture and simmer for 20 minutes.

  4. Stir in brandy and sherry, then place in jars for storage.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 base that gives the mincemeat its body and savoury depth.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps preserve it along with the brandy and sherry.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, deep flavour to the mincemeat.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps preserve the mincemeat for storage.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the cooking liquid. Fat that is not skimmed off after the liquid chills will float and can make the finished mincemeat greasy and less stable in storage.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, apple, clove, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. 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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