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Mince Meat

A sweet mixture of beef, apples, suet, dried fruit, sugar, molasses, spices, and cider, cooked together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mince Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the beef until tender.

  2. Chop the beef finely.

  3. For each bowlful of chopped meat, add 2 chopped apples.

Mix and cook

  1. Mix in 1 lb chopped suet, 2 lbs chopped seeded raisins, 1 lb currants, and ½ lb chopped figs.

  2. Add 2 lbs sugar, ½ pint molasses, salt, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and mace to taste.

  3. Moisten the mixture well with cider, adding boiled cider if you have it.

  4. Mix thoroughly and place in a large pan.

  5. Cook for 30 minutes, adding more spices and cider if needed.

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 + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Currant + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the bulk and meaty body of the filling after boiling and chopping.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture rich and moist during cooking.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture's flavor and moisture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and a rich, caramel-like flavor.
Cider
Moistens the mixture so the filling stays tender and cohesive.

The step that matters

Moistening with cider. Enough liquid must be worked evenly through the chopped meat and fruit. Dry spots can stay tough or crumbly, while the cider distributes flavor and moisture through the whole mixture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, apple, raisin, fig, sugar, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, apple, raisin, fig, sugar, molasses. 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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