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Christmas Mince-meat

A Christmas mince meat made with boiled beef, tongue, suet, apples, and raisins, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Christmas Mince-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Soak the tongue overnight in cold water if it is hard and dry.

  2. Place the tongue in a large pot with cold water, bring the pot to a boil, then pour off the boiling water.

  3. Replace the water with fresh cold water and heat it with the tongue to boiling again.

  4. Boil for 1 hour.

  5. Add 3 pounds of lean beef and 1 tablespoon of salt to the pot.

  6. Continue boiling gently for 3 more hours.

  7. Remove the pot from heat and take out the tongue.

  8. Skin the tongue and return it to the pot.

  9. Let the tongue and beef cool in the pot liquor.

  10. Once cool, remove skin and gristle from the beef.

  11. Chop the beef finely.

  12. Trim the tongue and chop enough of it to make 2 pounds.

  13. Mix the chopped tongue with the chopped beef.

Add the fruit and suet

  1. Remove membrane from the suet and chop the suet finely.

  2. Add the suet to the meat mixture.

  3. Add 4 pounds of chopped tart apples and 4 pounds of raisins.

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 + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Beef + raisintop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Beef + appletop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides meaty body and savoury flavour to the mincemeat filling.
Tongue
Adds rich, tender meat that blends into the chopped filling.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks and stores.
Tart apples
Add acidity and moisture that balance the sweetness of the raisins.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the meat gently after adding the beef. Vigorous boiling toughens meat proteins and can leave the beef dry and stringy, so keep the pot at a gentle simmer for the full three hours.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin. 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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