Skip to main content
Main

Mince Meat

A preserved meat dish made with beef, apples, cider, raisins, currants, citron, lemon peel, suet, molasses, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the beef to make about 3.5 quarts.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped beef, apples, sweet cider, boiled cider, raisins, currants, citron, lemon peel, suet, molasses, butter, mace, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Cook over low heat for 4 to 5 hours, stirring often to prevent burning.

Store

  1. Once cooked, allow to cool and store in jars.

  2. It will keep well and can be reheated for use in the spring.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  2. Cider + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 body and savory base of the mincemeat.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness and body that balance the sweet fruit and spices.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that gives a rich mouthfeel and carries the spice flavors.
Raisins
Contribute concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat with frequent stirring. Mincemeat is rich in sugars and fats that scorch easily on the bottom of a pot. Low heat and regular stirring prevent burning and let the flavors blend slowly over the long cook.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, cider, raisin, currant, molasses, butter):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, cider, raisin, currant, molasses, butter. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes