Name: Superlative Mincemeat
Ingredients: 4 large lemons; 4 large golden pippins, peeled and cored; 1 cup jar raisins; 1 cup currants; 1 cup candied citron; 1 cup candied orange rind; 1 cup finely chopped suet; 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar; 3 to 4 cups good brandy

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Superlative Mincemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the lemons until tender, then chop them small, removing all the seeds.
Combine the chopped lemons with the other prepared ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix in 3 to 4 cups of brandy until well combined.
Optionally, add the weight of one lemon in meat or a small quantity of crushed macaroons before baking.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, raisin, orange, sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.