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Mince-meat

A seasoned beef mixture with apples, raisins, currants, spices, and sweet cider, used for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Mince-meat

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 meat and fruit

  1. Boil the beef until tender.

  2. Chop the beef finely when cold.

  3. Chop the beef suet and apples finely.

Combine and season

  1. Combine the chopped beef, suet, apples, raisins, currants, and citron in a large bowl.

  2. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and brown sugar to the mixture.

  3. Boil the sweet cider until it thickens to a syrup consistency.

  4. Add the thickened sweet cider to the mixture.

  5. Incorporate the liquor from boiling the meat into the mixture.

  6. When making pies, add a little more apple and boiled-down cider.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. 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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 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

Beef
Provides the meaty bulk and body of the mincemeat once boiled and finely chopped.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling moist and rounded in flavour.
Apples
Contribute moisture, tartness, and body that balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep molasses flavour that helps preserve the filling.
Sweet cider
Reduced to a syrup, it adds concentrated sweet apple flavour and liquid to the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil the sweet cider to a syrup. Cider must be reduced until it thickens, because too much liquid left in the mixture can make the filling wet and runny in pies.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice. 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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Pie Filling 11Pie 10with Apples 9Preserved 8Apple 7Mock 7 See all 183 →

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